


The Teacher

by Siera_Knightwalker



Category: Naruto
Genre: Age Difference, BAMF Dai-hachi-han | Team 8 (Naruto), BAMF Dai-jippan | Team 10 (Naruto), BAMF Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto), BAMF Haruno Sakura, BAMF Uchiha Sasuke, BAMF Uzumaki Naruto, Baby Badasses, Badass!everyone, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Female Friendship, Fix-It, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Girl Power, Happy Ending, Happy Naruto!, Happy Sasuke!, Implied Gay Relationships, Implied Relationship, Implied Sexual Content, Major Original Character(s), Male-Female Friendship, Maybe failed, No cheating, OC, OCs - Freeform, Original Character(s), POV Original Character, SI, SI OC - Freeform, SI-OC, Silent support, Strong Female Characters, Strong Haruno Sakura, Strong OC, Strong Uzumaki Naruto, Teaching, Understanding, about life, and also about how to behave, each other, everyone tries to set aside differences, female oc - Freeform, silent shinobi rules, surprised jonin sensei, tried to keep it a little realistic, you tell me - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 08:01:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 42,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25919995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Siera_Knightwalker/pseuds/Siera_Knightwalker
Summary: Newly assigned teacher for the Academy is the infamous chunin, Amazaki Narumi. She has survived where many haven't, and now she's in the Academy to pass on her skills to Naruto and make sure no matter what, he will survive even against an S-ranker. If only to run away. A side dish of Kakashi, some Iruka-Naruto bonding and an OC-Naruto bonding!
Relationships: Haruno Sakura & OFC, Teacher & Students, Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 69
Kudos: 234
Collections: A Collection of Beloved Inserts





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I woke up one day with this idea in my head. It wouldn't let go, so I wrote it down! I hope you enjoy!

Amazaki Narumi.

That was her name.

She frowned at the newest location of her placement. It wasn't a surprise but still, she frowned. If the last 10 years had taught her anything, it was to take what she could with a healthy doze of suspicion, and this was the first time she was placed inside the Village in a while. And why would he? She was a combat specialist first and foremost. There was no reason to place her in the Village. Specially when she was _good_ at doing what she did.

But.

She was still just a chunin.

So she walked through the front doors and into the hell hole that would be her next half or one year assignment, depending on a sodding old coot. The laughter and screams of the children were easily heard through the hallway. The teachers were trying hard to manage the children while all the kids wanted, was to go out into the sun and run back home. This place never changed, would never change.

Thankfully, she was assigned to the forth year, or she would have gone ahead to protest to the Hokage, no matter the fact that she had never done so before, but at least then he hadn't been letting her abilities _rot_ in a corner somewhere. He had been using her, and she had no problems with that.

She crossed found the teacher's lounge close to the doorway. She knocked on the door, getting the supervisor's attention. The supervisor looked to be the Hokage's age, but not in the way the Hokage did. He looked like if there was an invasion, he wouldn't even be able to get up from his chair. As if to prove her wrong, he got up from his chair and welcomed her in with a scowl. But even though he didn't move, she spotted the limp from the corner of her eye. When he sat back down heavily, she said nothing, standing at attention in front of him.

"You have been assigned in the Academy for the next year by the decree of the Hokage." Narumi bowed her head in acknowledgment.

"Yes sir. I was told to be the combat instructor for the forth years." The supervisor scowled at her.

"There is no need for one in the forth year, go to the third year. Your help will be invaluable there." Instead of agreeing like she was supposed to, Narumi looked up with a flat look.

"I was assigned so by the _Hokage._ _Only_ , and only if the Hokage himself reassigns me, I will accept it. You have no authority to do that." Her voice was cold as ice. The man broke out in cold sweat.

"Yes, you are correct. I apologize, in my old age, you know." He laughed a little nervously. She silently wondered why he tried to pull that with her. The classes were still ongoing so she wouldn't be able to talk to the teacher yet, but she could spy on them.

After leaving the staff room, she walked to her suspected class, hidden from the students and the teacher, of course. The teacher was a brunette with a scar across his nose, trying his best to teach the students.

A smooth henge later, she was sitting as an extra mop in the corner of the class. It was a rowdy bunch but not as bad as the younger years, at least. The instructor was good at hustling them into doing the work. They were learning about the geography of the Elemental Nations with different topographical features for different nations and literally _no one_ was asking questions. Why? He was a good instructor but instead of listening to him talk about useful and interesting information they were-

Her eyes sharpened on the Nara. He had been lazily sleeping but he just shifted his posture. He shot a suspicious look near her and tugged at something from underneath his desk. There was an explosion of colors and scents from below their desks. A spray of paint to people's faces of their bodies. A few people actually managed to react instinctively fast, which was actually fast enough to commend them for. They should be kept an eye on. Instinctive avoidance like that was good. Two people's faces were almost completely missed- one was the Hyuuga, she leaned froward and tilted her head back so her body got all of it instead of the ceiling and the other was a pink haired girl, she leaned away but paint wasn't really aimed at her face like everyone else's.

Favorism of the prankster.

She was a lucky girl.

"Haha! You'll never catch me!" Screamed the blonde kid. Her breath caught in her lungs. The Hokage's kid?

Like with most people 11 years ago, the Hokage was the infamously known in Konoha for his bright blonde hair, his over-indulgence of his angry red head of a girlfriend and his general nice-ness. He was a common figure around, specially when he was with the red haired banshee. When she got embarrassed, she screamed it at the world.

She had seen them once, but he had been mini-her's first crush and she had resented the red head on his arm with a fierceness that was very embarrassing to think about now. That bright blond hair had stolen her childish heart, and she was seeing the _exact same color on someone else._

She kawarimi'd out of there as fast as she could. The Forth Hokage had a child.

Then her eyes narrowed in determination. She needed to get her hands on the student files on everyone in the year. She headed for the filing room for that year and spent the whole time till class gave over, reading over the information given for each student.

When she finally found a match- Naruto Uzumaki was the blonde haired kid- she scowled. That was the Forth Hokage's kid. Wasn't anyone giving him _any_ specialized training?

She was born of a shinobi absentee parent and a civilian one who raised her quite well, but while she had gotten a little side help whenever her father was home, she hadn't had much of the clan training. She had survived because of _luck_ till she became old enough to kill her opponent instead of being killed.

Specialized training was partiality, yes. But it increased survival odds like crazy. She had learnt so many useful tricks from her father that she whole-heartedly believed that she would have died if not for him. Those tricks helped her _survive!_

Why wasn't anyone making sure this boy survived?

She let out a silent moan inside her head, holding the file tightly.

The Forth Hokage was going to be a big change 11 years ago, she knew. In the one year he had been in office, he had already tried to create so many changes. He had ruffled a few feathers, but he had _helped_. Her father had come back home bright eyed with _hope_. And then, the nine-tails had squashed their hope like it squashed her father.

She put back all the files neatly and went looking for the Iruka-sensei everyone admired.

He was chatting with the other teachers, laughing about something or the other when she threw down the one file she had brought.

She sat down across him and smiled. It wasn't a nice smile.

"Tell me about him."

Iruka looked down at the file and then at her, his lips flattened with displeasure.

"Uzumaki Naruto," he said, mixed feelings in his voice. _Kyubi jinchuriki,_ he thought. "He is a prankster, never pays attention in any class, runs away from class whenever he can. He's loud, boisterous, obnoxious." She clicked her tongue.

"I'm not talking about personality, sensei. I want to know how he studies, what his grades are, what he's good at, what's his best class. Because his _files_ don't say quite a few things, I noticed." Iruka's eyes widened.

"I-uh." He stuttered for a moment. Everyone was already doing their work but they kept an eye on one of their oldest instructor vs newest one.

"Yes?" She asked, blandly. Because she needed these answers. Iruka seemed fine though, he didn't seem to hate the Uzumaki from the bottom of his heart at least.

"He-he is good with flamboyance, distraction and demolition type fighter. His taijutsu isn't very good though, but sometimes he's either _very_ good with ninjutsu or _very_ bad. He seemed interested in sealing as a side course for a while, but never took it up." Iruka seemed to struggle for bit before realizing he probably knew more than he thought he knew, "He has some first aid training like everyone else. it was the only class he came to consistently. His grades," his mouth twisted with displeasure, "he's a terrible student, you have to understand. His grades reflect that. He's in the bottom of the class, at risk to be kicked out from the shinobi program."

There was a pause.

"So basically, you're telling me," she said flatly, "The only thing he's interested in are side courses which the main teachers don't attend to?"

The Hokage had put two people in Naruto's class. iruka and her. It depended on them to make sure that he had enough of the basics embedded in him so he could survive his jonin-sensei. She had no doubt that he would make it that far. The Hokage would make him an apprentice to someone, if nothing else.

She sighed.

"Thank you, sensei." Then she turned around and walked away. She wasn't called as a taijutsu-specialist. She was called as a _combat_ specialist. It was her job to throw in as much survival information as she could fit in their heads.

Her first class was tomorrow and she had free reign in what she could teach them.

-x-

The first time she entered the class along with Iruka, there was a pointing, gasping and whispering. She suppressed a smile at them. Kids were kind of cute, no? But at least, they weren't too small and hyper or she would end up strangling them and accidentally killing them.

Iruka had been their teacher for less than a month before she was brought along, apparently replacing another teacher. Iruka introduced her to the class and she stepped forward.

"I have been in the field for quite some time so please excuse me. I might not be aware of many of the current ongoings inside the village. I am your combat instructor for the next year," she smiled at them, "but feel free to ask me about anything else as well. I'm also not from a clan," she nodded towards the general area where some of the clan kids grouped, "so any information I give you or not give you in mine to use freely. Please take care of me."

She bowed at the class and stood beside Iruka. Some of the class seemed to phase out whatever they were saying but Naruto seemed surprisingly happy to see her.

Her class was thankfully before lunch break so when Iruka walked away, she grinned at them.

"So, what all have you kids learnt before this?" The pinkette raised her hand and she raised a brow.

"It's fine, you can just speak. I'm not used to classroom etiquette anyway," she waved it off.

"Yes, sensei. We have been taught the Academy basic taijutsu, survival training, camping, and conditioning. We have also killed an animal, as required by the Academy curriculum. We have done the courses set outside as well. We were told we were going to start sparring this year."

Narumi blinked.

"That's...it?" She asked. The pinkette deflated. "I-I mean, good job, Sakura-chan. Thank you for informing me." Sakura smiled brightly at her. Some of the girls giggled at her flustered response.

"We were also taught weapons training," Naruto spoke up, a little quietly, when no one said anything.

"Oh, thank you, Naruto-kun." She smiled at the boy. He flushed.

"Oh yeah, that too."

"Oh, man. I can't believe _he_ remembered something I forgot."

The kids started whispering. My lips flattened.

"Quiet." I commanded. "You do as I tell you, or you get out. You do _not_ bad-mouth your future comrade. They might be the reason you're alive one day." The whispering kids cowered back down.

"Okay, so we'll start the class nice and and simple." She smiled. "You get to fight one-on-one against me!" She clapped her hands cheerfully.

She got them out to the field and everyone was quietly whispering.

"First up, Uchiha Sasuke."

Everyone quieted down while Sasuke came face to face with her.

"I will just be using taijutsu, you can use weapons, ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu. It's anything goes for you. Co-ordinate your attacks with each other. Try _not_ to throw any weapon towards the other students, because I need them alive. Fight will end when I disable you." A few kids giggled, some nervously.

"Okay, start." She said.

Uchiha Sasuke was good. He wasn't exactly _genius_ good, but he was quite good. Maybe, just towing the line. Then half a minute in, she had to reassess. His taijutsu wasn't anything amazing, but his co-ordination and control was good. He tugged a wire attached to shuriken with one hand while throwing kunai with the other, trying to keep her at a distance. If he tried taijutsu only, he would get crushed, and since the space was so open, he couldn't spin a web but since I can't cut or do anything without a weapon in my hand, he figured it was safe.

She smirked, catching one of his kunai mid-air, before throwing it away.

"If you keep throwing kunai willy-nilly, I'll start using them, Sasuke-kun." He tried to bind her in a bunch of wires which she got away from easily. Then when, he seemed to have shown most of his tricks, I slipped behind him and took away his weapons from his hands. Then it was a pure taijutsu beat down.

At the end, he lay moaning on the floor.

"Very good, Sasuke-kun. You don't make the same mistake twice, you have good control, your stamina isn't too bad either. Your taijutsu style requires you to be faster than the other though but you'll reach that level soon enough. Because of your body control, I think you could start resistance training soon." Sasuke looked up curiously at that.

"Resistance training?" He croaked out. Probably from the fireball he tried to shoot out but she almost smashed his jaw for. She gave him a bottle of water.

"Yes. If you would like to stay after class, I could show you the shop. I _am_ a taijutsu specialist, after all." She said with a wry smile. He drank some water and got up.

"Pick up your weapons too." She tilted her head at the strewn weapons.

"Next up, Haruno Sakura," she called. The pinkette nervously came forward.

She was textbook and very straight forward in her taijutsu. It was almost...innocent, in a way. But not very good for survival. She didn't even last a minute, though she has some surprising strength in her punch.

She also tried a genjutsu and tried for kawarimi, but she was trying to carefully go through the signs so. Slammed into the floor mid-way it was!

She assigned her a work out regime that she would need to draw up and have it sent to her by the next day. She needed more dexterity in her fingers too.

Then were all of the clan kids, a few more civilians. They needed something _other_ than their clan speciality. She needed to draw up more work out regimes for each one.

Last was- "Next up, Uzumaki Naruto!"

He grinned bright but nervously.

"Hell yeah! I'm going to beat you, lady!" He screamed at her. She raised a brow at the 180, then he charged ahead. First, his form was terrible. He was brawling. With her. A taijutsu specialist.

It was like an arrow in her heart. It was more pain than he felt when she smashed him into the floor, taking advantage of his dis balanced state. He got up, to her surprise, and then did the same thing in a different way. She sighed. Then got to work fixing it.

When he punched at her, she shifted his other hand; when he kicked at her, she fixed his arms. He had decent balance, and good spacial recognition but his mind seemed faster than his body. But no matter how many times she punted him, he got up. Since she didn't actually want to give him brain damage, she put a hand up stopping him

He ran into her hand, windmilled his arm and she rolled her eyes and pushed back at him. He fell back on his butt.

"That's done. You have terrific stamina, Naruto-kun." He looked at her surprised then grinned like crazy.

"Hell yes! Stamina, dattebayo!" Her lips quirked up.

"You're good at thinking up unexpected things, you'd be a good front liner. Iruka has you tagged well." Iruka _did_ call him a demolition or distraction. That was a good call.

"But, you need more body control. Climb trees, run on walls, heck, do hand stands on the walls. Experience will be your best teacher, to be honest." She looked at the rest of the class.

"Does anyone have time after class to fight with Naruto-kun?" She asked the students. A few shuffled nervously but no one spoke up. She sighed.

"Very well then." She turned back to Naruto who looked at the rest of his classmates sadly, then with panic at her, probably thinking she was going to ditch him out after doing something or the other for the rest of the class. "Come back here everyday, one hour after classes. I'll be your sparring partner." She combed through her hair, thinking up plans and discarding them.

"WHAT?" A few people screamed. Including Naruto, it seemed. She looked at them, surprised.

"What?" A civilian kid spoke.

"I-Isn't that favorism?" She scowled.

"What's favorism about it? I am giving every one of you a personalized training regime for you to follow. Hell, I'm giving a few of you a diet regime to follow. Since none of you seem open to sparring with him, I have to. It's my job description." She straightened out and stood in front of the bunched up class.

"Every single one of you will be a soldier in the name of Konoha. You will all do what the Hokage requires from you. Why should I not help you become the best you can be?"

"B-but he's Naruto!" Someone protested. She looked at the blond kid not even sweating after the beat down and looked at the whole class being a bunch of sweaty tired kids.

"And?" She asked, confused. "Can't you see him?" She pointed at him, and they looked at her then at him, who was looked at everyone bewildered.

She shook her head.

"Whatever. Get in class, everyone." She handed a bottle of water to Naruto, like she had everyone and nudged him back to class.

Back in class, everyone just dropped down like they were planning to sleep.

"You can start eating if you want, but I want you to pay attention to my trivia." The kids who had them, brought out their lunches with delight. Some sharing with other kids. Naruto was alone.

"So! History trivia! Does anyone know about the Fallen Clan?" The pinkette raised her hand and spoke.

"Is that the Lost Clan that's told in our history books?" She smiled approvingly at the girl.

"That's right."

"It's not mentioned much in the books. All it says is that in the Second War an allied clan since the Warring Era, fell to the other countries." She wondered why it was cut out so much. Probably because all the members were presumed dead.

Then she smiled, her next words would definitely capture attention.

"It was once known as the Uzumaki clan." The clan kids stopped. Even most of the civilians stopped. Naruto looked up with wide wide eyes.

"Wait, a clan?" the Nara asked. I smirked.

"Yes. It wasn't just a Village. It was made of only one clan, set not far from the shores of the mainland. They gathered on the island and focused on sealing like we focus on ninja arts. Their sealing was so legendary that the First Hokage brought in their foremost sealer at that time, and married her. Her name was Uzumaki Mito." She found she had captured everyone's attention by then. The call of Hokage really was strong.

"The Uzumaki Clan was almost fully lost, aside from a very few survivors scattered across the nations. No one knows where many of the survivors still remain." She spoke as if she was weaving a haunted tale. "But," she said with a smile, but not really ruining the atmosphere, adding a mysterious tinge, "maybe one of you will find some of the survivors of the Lost Clan and bring them back home, to their sister Village that still stands till this date."

She turned around and pointed to her back.

"Does anyone recognize this symbol?" There was many _many_ more glances at Naruto then. He always had that symbol on his clothes, they realized.

Just like every clan inside Konoha, they looked at him wide-eyed.

 _Naruto_ was looking at her mouth agape, his eyes round.

"Th-That's the symbol of the Uzumaki clan?"

"Uzushiogakure, the Village hidden in the Whirlpool." She agreed and finished.

There was a haunted silence.

"Class is finished."

Naruto shot out of class like there was a fire, and the class burst into loud whispers.

She just smirked and walked out.


	2. Chapter 2

Narumi got called to the Hokage's office and scolded.

Apparently, upsetting Naruto was a grave offense. She bowed her head and listened to her leader.

She wasn't allowed to talk about Naruto, at all. Not his clan, not his parents, not anything. Not that he specifically said anything.

Then, he turned around and applauded her dedication to her new students. While most teachers pushed for learning more ninjutsu, more survival training, she was making the best of what they had. She was let off soon because the Hokage was a busy man. He assigned her desk duty for a few hours every day for a month. It was basically a slap on the wrist but she still despised desk duty.

She was specifically told that the law made after the kyuubi attack was still in effect so she shouldn't be talking about anything related to that either. She accepted that warning as well.

Then she went back to planning for her students. The peacetime made everyone more lazy, and while she had become a little relaxed too, but when you're in the border where anything could go wrong, yeah. Lazy wasn't what she called herself.

After class, she led Uchiha Sasuke to the shop and gave him a scroll of instructions with strict rules. He wasn't supposed to bulk up, he was going to be faster. So, he had to wear the lightest ones and run.

These were light weights that he could wear all the time without pushing himself. If he pushed himself without her supervision, she would ban him from this shop until he became chunin, and who knows how long that would take. If he hurt himself, he could require therapy and healing for up to half a year depending on the injury. She laid out all the facts bare for him.

If he hurt himself, he hurt only himself. She wasn't going to care for him and there wasn't anyone but the hospital to take care of him either. So he could be stuck there for up to half a year. The place he first woke up to after the massacre.

She didn't say it, but she implied it pretty damn hard. He seemed to take her seriously so she let him run off with it. She had less than half an hour to meet up with Naruto outside the Academy. She sighed and prepared for a tiring day

A few hours later, looking down at a sweaty tired Naruto, she was just glad he wasn't used to combat. He had tired himself out faster than either of them imagined. Continued combat generally did that for newbies.

Either way, she was glad. She wiped off sweat form her forehead and threw a bottle of water near him.

"Sensei," he breathed out heavily. She sat down beside him.

"Yes, Naruto-kun?"

"Today, when you were talking about the-" he hesitated, "the Uzumaki clan, was that true?" She nodded.

"But-but I'm an orphan. Jiji said, he didn't know who my parents are." She sighed. _Really, Hokage-sama._ What a conundrum to throw her in.

"In Konoha, orphans aren't given a last name. Sometimes, when they are adopted, they get one but you must _somehow_ be related to that clan, even if you were an orphan from someone who claimed to have escaped from there." She ruffled his sweat soaked hair, absent-mindedly. The red-haired woman could have been an Uzumaki. Weren't they known for their red hair? Or was it blue? She shook her head. It was too long ago since her jonin-sensei had spoken of the Fall with sad eyes.

"Family of blood is important, but family of choice is also important too, you know." She looked back at Naruto, who looked like he was going to curl up and go to sleep right there.

"Hey, hey. Don't go to sleep here. You need to stretch, take a bath and then eat before bed." She nudged him up.

"Senseiiiii," he whined. She rolled her eyes.

"Let me walk you through your stretches."

It was kind of like having a whiny younger brother, to be honest. Naruto kept glancing at her often when she walked him back home, then appalled by the lack of food, she ordered him into a bath and bought him vegetables and stored them in his fridge. There was a couple of spoiled food around which she took the liberty to throw out and when he came out, she had written down a few simple recipes. One with eggs, another with whatever vegetables he had on hand and a last one for meat that every shinobi and their mother knew.

She walked him through the recipe and wondered if she should do this with every orphan in her class. She had two more, now that she thought about it. Sasuke and Aime. Aime was a girl so she might have more problems too.

Then, after writing the last of the training regimes then foods and calories they should consume. For Sakura, she had added more calculations, added in what exercise burnt how much calories and how much a general shinobi used and the way the higher up you went, the more you ate and more energy you consumed. She actually had to crack open a book from the library to write out the exact calculations for how much extra food went into increasing your chakra capacity as well.

Then she wrote down most of the same, cutting out some general knowledge the Nara clan taught it's kids and wrote it all in Shikamaru's diet as well.

She wrote the basics down in Choji's and told him to cut out the chips and snack on some jerky or meat instead. He needed muscle instead of fat. By the end of it all, it was so late, it felt like morning.

Teaching was _hard._

From the next day on, she would also have additional time on the mission assignment area. She could almost cry.

The next day, dawned bright and early and she shut her curtains with a whine. Then she went back to sleep.

She was literally awoken by knocking on the door.

"Wh-what?" She opened the door, still blinking out sleep from her eyes.

"Iruka-sensei?" He looked mad. Her eyes widened.

"Oh shit." She looked at the time, threw on her flack jacket over her crumpled clothes, gathered all the scrolls she had put on one side and shunshined as fast as she could to the Academy, leaving Iruka behind. Iruka shook his head disappointed, before spotting one of the scrolls rolling under the table.

He picked it up, almost rolling it close before spotting one of the student's names.

 ** _Haruno Sakura_** , it read.

When he rolled it open, his eyes widened at the amount of things she had put in.

It started with dietary requirements for a shinobi, stating normal stats that most students never even touched in their lives, but something he already know would interest Sakura very much. He had been the one to write it in her file.

' _-she noticed details most chunin would never figure out and enjoyed reading about them. Most of the classes she makes minute notes of every extra point a teacher brings up. Her books and head is filled with millions of trivia most would dismiss as unnecessary background information. Sometimes unable to say them out loud because she knows hundreds of reasons for the one thing that's going wrong. She doesn't have enough experience to spot which reason yet, but she would make an excellent analyst.'_

That woman had read everyone's file.

Iruka gave a wry chuckle. It wasn't hostility towards Naruto she was feeling, but perhaps protectiveness.

He rolled up the scroll and made his way back to the Academy to hand them over to her.

-x-

As soon as she reached the class and dropped her scrolls on her desk, she realized that the students weren't there. She went outside to the field and found them all just standing together and talking. A few were stretching for the class. Naruto was standing on the branch of a tree, carefully trying to make his way to the edge.

She kept an eye on him, while walking towards her class, so when he inevitably floundered and fell, she shot forward and caught him mid-air. Also, catching everyone's attention.

She put him down and clapped her hands.

"So is everyone done stretching?" The rest immediately dropped down into the stretches taught by the instructor. Naruto and some civilians were floundering a little so brought them to the side, fixing any mistakes. Some did a totally different stretch that would end with a torn muscle so she told them what to do and what not to do. Taking care of their own body was the first rule of a taijutsu specialist after all.

Then, she made them sprint round and round the field, editing the profiles of them she had made in my head. Some people like Ino had less stamina than expected, but Shikamaru had more. Naruto beat everyone in stamina but Sasuke had everyone beat in speed. He also had above average stamina.

Sasuke's base was pretty good, to be honest, but since every regime also had an addition for increasing kawarimi's speed, she hesitated in recommending ninjutsu training. She could make him a taijutsu specialist but only his jonin sensei would have to give him the real life experience and jutsu needed to make him higher than B-rank. She had him for a year. Who knows, if she had unrestrained influence on his for a year, she could get him into mid-B rank at least.

But of course, the Hokage would never let that happen. So she wished her dreams goodbye and watched her class. She had them throw weapons, then strength exercises and by the end of it she had minor editions to make to her regimes and she could hand them over.

They cooled down, and went back inside class to relax. She sat in front of them, frowning at an extra scroll that was dropped off on top before realizing it was Sakura's and starting with her's. When she finished editing, she called for the student and handed them the scroll. Told each and every one to follow them perfectly or they would end up with a serious injury in her class because she was planning to push them hard.

She would know who didn't follow the regime because they would end up in the hospital. She specifically warned each orphan because they had no one to take care of them, unlike the others. Aime actually cowered. She patted her head reassuringly before asking her if she would like to know some simple dishes to cook fast with basic ingredients. She nodded so hard, Narumi could swear she got a whiplash.

She told her to stay back after classes ended. She asked Sasuke too and he reluctantly agreed when she spoke about a meat dish.

Most shinobi weren't good cooks, aside from field food. She was an exception where she was a decent cook outside of any field rations. She called over Naruto as well, because might as well make it an event.

They squabbled like kids. That they were. More than once she had to pull them away from each other.

They didn't even notice where they were going. Though Aime did.

"I-Isn't this shinobi apartments?" She nodded in agreement. It was also recently bought. After her parents died, one after the other. She had almost constantly been out of Konoha. Only coming back to crash in a friend's home for a few nights before she was back in the field. This was her first long term assignment inside Konoha after a while.

She ruffled Aime's dirty ash blonde hair and brought the three kids in her apartments. She was glad to see her bedroom door was shut when she had left it open.

"Why don't you have a lock?" Sasuke asked, or demanded, more like it. She flicked his forehead for his tone.

"We are the foremost protectors of the Village. No one attacks a shinobi in a shinobi village. Also, almost every shinobi from mid to high chunin can track down a bunch of idiots. Iruka is a chakra tracker, didn't you know?" She asked them absentmindedly, gathering up vegetables from her fridge.

"Not a chakra sensor?" He continued grilling her.

"No, he can sense path taken, not always where it leads. Though we have some chakra sensors. Some good ones end up as hunter-nin in-oops." She interrupted herself. She got too comfortable. First rule of Anbu, don't talk about Anbu.

"I mean, you know." She shrugged a little. Sasuke realized what she was implying and the two others were left confused. Naruto was paying the food more attention than her words anyway, but Aime looked a bit suspicious.

"Okay, first we're going for the egg dish!" Sasuke huffed in annoyance. "Sasuke, chop the these vegetables for the next one. Not too small though." She sidelined most of the vegetables she brought out.

She showed Naruto and Aime how to prep food, which she hadn't explained too well to Naruto last time.

Naruto enthusiastically tried his best to handle the food like she had done the last time she was at his place, he spilled a little and a little spat almost started with Sasuke until she started talking about how her mother had taught her to cook and how once she had upturned a whole curry into her face, trying to walk with the bowl to her father.

It became a little more melancholic than expected when Aime asked if she could meet her mother. She smiled at them and told them her mother had died a few years after her father. Suicide, they ruled it with a single glance.

She shrugged and called it 'the past'. She had learnt to move on. Sasuke was a little more quiet then, perhaps because he realized when she said 'they' she meant the Police Force. He was a little uncomfortable then.

She ruffled his hair with a smile and kind eyes. It wasn't his fault. There was no need to carry a grudge against a dead man.

Aime tried to make the vagetable one with instructions on how to do what, and they created a somewhat successful dish. She put on rice on the side while Naruto excitedly tried to cut the meat. It was a little butchered, but Sasuke learnt quick for the meat dish. He followed her instructions accurately and seared the meat with perfection. Then she threw in the vegetable dish over the meat, making Sasuke's eyes widen and the other two gasp aloud at ruining Sasuke's and Aime's food.

She winked at Sasuke.

It turned out pretty good considering they were all novices. It was a smooth transition to go from cooking to eating at her table, if she was to be honest.

They _had_ to try their first cooked food. It was rite of passage for all novice chefs.

She made a few clones and dropped them all back home- Sasuke, only till the compound though. She left after ruffling all their hair and wishing them a good night.

Cooking three different dishes took time, but at least, there was time to do a few hours at the mission desk that was open 24/7. She dropped by, signed up for a few hours, and cat napped until someone came by to either pick missions up or drop reports by.

It was boring. Then after her time was done, she dropped by the filing room and filed up the reports dropped by. She still had time for her personal training so she dropped by the training field, pushed herself as hard as she could for a few hours then cooled down and went back home. Sleep was important too.

-x-

The next day was mostly normal. She made a couple of kids puke, told Sakura to eat more calories in the morning or she would faint and fed her one of the ration bars than she somehow choked down. She also left her the wrapping so she checked out the amount of calories she had eaten till yet.

She threw Naruto against Choji, and made him sweat like crazy until he realized that _no, he wasn't allowed to snack in front of her. If he wanted, get meat!_

Shikamaru, she threw against Sasuke, because that was like motivated against unmotivated. If Shikamaru didn't want to end up brain dead, he would fight back because she wouldn't end the all-out fight until he totally lost consciousness. He must have realized that when he failed to throw the match and then again with more urgency, when Sasuke was choking him and he was trying to tap out and she wasn't telling him to let go.

He pulled out his clan jutsu and somehow slithered away. Sasuke was suddenly interested and there was the weirdest fight of the century. Ino was very surprised to see Shikamaru actually getting his ass up in order, that's for sure.

Then after Shikamaru pulled out his clan jutsu, it was like a free for all where the clan kids pulled out all the tricks and tried to beat each other.

It was good.

There were a few snags when she had to step in and stop a few people from accidentally-on-purpose try to kill each other.

There was also Shikaku who was suddenly looking at her with respect while trying to scold her for endangering the children. It was an epic failure considering no one of them had a single scratch she didn't want them to have.

Even the Hokage didn't say anything, just puffing smoking and watching them with amusement.

The next day, a lot of civilian kids were eyeing some of the clan kids viciously.

There was a mass free-for-all, all out attack between the students.

It was a mess.

She had banned smoke bombs, or any kind of sprays or paints.

_Thank god for that foresight._

The civilians ganged up on the clan kids and it was a 2-to-1 fight that she found some of the kids' parents came to watch, and a few prospective jonin-sensei as well.

There was spit, blood and sweat. The whole landscape got destroyed. She had called many away from the building itself but the Academy course was an included area that they took to with glee. When some kid was knocked out, or too damaged to continue, she pulled them out, or if needed, brought them to the hospital. There was some crying too.

The only reason she could keep up with all of them was because she was practically a jonin going by her survival skills, that included observing minute details. She didn't have two affinities trained so she wasn't qualified for the jonin exam, but she was probably going to get her special jonin ticket soon. She _was_ a taijutsu specialist.

Shikamaru was going guerrilla warfare, and included Ino and Choji. They found ways to communicate between them.

The funny thing was, Naruto was kind of caught in between. While he was technically a clan kid, he wanted to fight Sasuke, and a lot of people were getting caught in the crossfire. Sasuke threw a few kunai at Naruto which he instinctively deflected towards a civilian kid charging at them and the back-side nailed him in the forehead, knocking him out. She shot in and got him out of the cross-fire and placed him behind her.

Then, Ino-Shika-Choji tried to throw down a few kids. Choji got some while Ino went after them with kunai and shuriken, and Shikamaru calculated mid-air trajectories and shot more weapons at Ino's so they hit their mark without permanent damage. Choji was just like a sledgehammer distraction in their face. Literally.

Then, some of the civilians came after them, led- surprisingly- by Aime. They threw weapons at their feet, destabilizing them. Ino tripped first and Narumi shunshined her out. Shikamaru sighed gratefully before getting back to destroying the civilians. Unfortunately, _Sakura_ emerged from the crowd and laid him out with a fist in his face.

Ino screamed in frustration from the sidelines.

Sakura was smirking at Ini when Choji narrowed an eye and buried a fist in her stomach. That got him caught by the people who were trying to get _him_ so he got disqualified too.

The tide seemed to turn then.

Some more of the clan kids got kicked out. Shino's knock out was totally accidental but equally funny. Hinata, disabled quite a few people before getting overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

One civilain tripped and almost died but Narumi got her out before she was minced meat.

Aime was doing surprisingly well. She was sneaky and was good at running away. Narumi added a ' _potential espionage specialist'_ to her mental file of her.

Naruto and Sasuke were the most surprising though. While they fought, they also had many side battles and somehow ended up protecting each other's back while the other was busy. It was good. Weird but good. Most importantly though, it worked.

Naruto and Sasuke were in sync in a way very very few duos were. She rubbed her hands together in glee. She wanted to drop them off at some chunins she knew.

It was amazing. It was perfect. They were a dream duo!

She needed to talk to the Hokage about some future teams.

Aime, to her surprise started fighting Kiba, the only other clan kid remaining. The civilian kids, watching her, went after Kiba. He squealing in a high pitch when a bunch of kids piled on him. Aime shot her a thumbs up.

Then, Sasuke and Naruto seemed to have made some kind of agreement and were on top of the civilians with a viciousness.

It ended with a tired high-five between a tired Sasuke collapsed over the rest of the children and Naruto laughing breathlessly.


	3. Chapter 3

Narumi ended up having to do light training for the kids for the next three days after the vicious all out fight. She told them to keep up with the regime she had already set up for them and to be very careful with their pre and post-training stretches.

It was nice to see them realizing how lacking they were even after they pulled every trick out. Shikamaru seemed to be doing a lot of mental jumping around in his other classes, according to Iruka, and not napping nearly as much. Neither one was sure if Hinata had grown more confident or more self-conscious, but it was clear there was _some_ change.

Choji was going back and forth between meat and chips for a while before settling down with some meat whenever he felt hungry. It took a while though. He had been talking about the ways to make meat taste good that he hadn't known before. He seemed offended, Iruka joked with twinkling eyes.

Naruto signed up for the side classes of sealing and though it was hard work, he was trying to catch up with the course work already done. He had approached her about it during their semi-regular training and then Iruka after she told him to talk to him. Iruka seemed happy assigning homework for him, telling him what different things meant, what was the difference between the Konoha standard script and the Uzumaki elaborate one.

Konoha was formal and kept everything in lines. It was very straightforward and relatively simple, but because of that, complex work using this script was impossible because it was adapted from the Uzumaki one. The Uzumaki script was complex, it wrote down parameters for _everything_ and trying to learn it made people's head spin. If you missed a parameter, it could or could not go wrong, depending on various environmental factors.

To seal anything with chakra was even more complex because there were multiple parts of chakra. Medical seals were one of the easiest seals to create because it generally either accepted or gave out pure chakra with perfectly balanced yin and yang, with no elemental input. It was also the reason most medics found it hard to use elemental chakra.

But it was still recommended that if you were going for the medical field, to achieve neutral chakra before you tried your elemental affinity, because otherwise, medical chakra would become hard to produce instead, and people always wanted more medics than ninjutsu specialists.

Either way, Uzumaki sealing that Naruto wanted to stubbornly try for, seemed to quite difficult, but she was sure he would come out the other side glad he had at least tried it, even if he failed.

The regime's results started showing within a month. The next assessment, their stamina became higher, their body became stronger. They _crushed_ their previous assessments and whatever the other instructors had thought about their future achievements.

Sakura got muscles that she showed off proudly. Narumi helped increase Sasuke's weights. Naruto came at her, trying to cook a couple more recipes, and on the the break days for the class, she called Sasuke, Aime and Naruto to her home again and taught them one dish of their choice.

Naruto chose- obviously- ramen, Sasuke chose cherry tomatoes and Aime shyly chose dofu.

They set off again. They were more experienced cooks in the month they hadn't caught up, Sasuke and Naruto were still quite hostile but somehow the bitterness between them seemed to have been reduced significantly. Aime talked more. She asked about Narumi's personal life a little and after she deflected it with questions at her, Aime talked about how she had been reading more books the last month and there was so much about chakra and- _could she please show Aime how to make chakra strings ohmygoditssocool._

When Aime started talking, she _gushed_ like a fountain. Both the boys were quite startled considering the last time Aime had barely even talked. Narumi approved, so she explained as much of the basics as she knew and told her to practice chakra control via leaf exercise to start off.

Iruka had been teaching them about the Academy Three and chakra control for two months already. Naruto still blew off his leaves while Aime had pretty good chakra control, and Sasuke was about average.

They talked about random things, not touching anything big. Naruto once talked about how he had painted the whole chunin headquarters a few years ago and she was laughing so hard her stomach hurt. Sasuke definitely laughed then started snarking when caught red-handed, when Naruto described the way a man walking in on him mid-paint then walked out with blank faced with glitter all over his body.

She laughed harder when she recognized who Naruto was talking about. Naruto had pet names for a lot of shinobi around by their characteristics, and he described some while she tried to place a name on them. Even Sasuke joined him. Narumi added some extra information that she could remember about them, but surprisingly, there were a lot of people she just didn't know.

One month in the job, and she hadn't even gone in for drinks with some of the other shinobi yet. She had spent time with Iruka, who knew many people but she had refused when he asked if she wanted to join in any social events. She had been spending all her time with either her students, or training or her student's training. It was surprisingly a sad realization.

"Maybe next time, I'll be able to name a few more," she ruffled Naruto's hair fondly who took it with a smile and affection in his eyes. It was nice to see he still liked her when some of her other students, like Sakura and Shikamaru were glaring at her and swearing she was the devil reborn. Maybe, Sakura would be too happy with her newfound muscles to glare at her hatefully anymore. That seemed to be the case for a while, at least.

The night ended well, and Hokage-sama asked her in for a status report. It was casual because he wanted to talk more about the kids too. He asked jokingly-or not so jokingly- if she had traumatized them yet.

She told him about Shikamaru hateful glares but he didn't seem traumatized as of yet, so that was okay. Naruto, Sasuke and Aime, the three support-less orphans in her class liked her, specially because she taught them how to make good food fast for themselves. Sakura, the top kunoichi seemed happy to not only have brains but also brawn. She almost punched a desk in half a few days ago. They were a good class, she concluded. By the time the year finished, they might all end up chunin level easily.

She smiled when she talked about them, and she talked about them proudly.

"I knew you didn't like wasted potential," he said, "but I never expected you to show such tremendous results in a single month." He gave her a kind smile. "Keep up with your own training as well."

"Yes, Hokage-sama! I won't fail you." She said, bowing.

"Dismissed, chunin." He smoked his pipe and she left the room and closed the door.

How was that man so good at making pride bloom in her chest when she had already known all that? Calling her chunin and telling her to train...She sighed when she felt not even a twinge of resentment. The Hokage was a terrifying person, as always.

She went to the mission office after, to finish up for her last day in the office. She was editing her student's profiles when a tokubetsu jonin- by the looks of it- dropped by. She sighed and put files aside.

He handed over his mission report before glancing over her student profiles. He did a double take before reassessing her. The senbon between his teeth went from one side of his mouth to the other, while she noted down the completion status of their mission, the leader's mission report -his- and finally writing down his shinobi number.

"Yes?" She looked up at him when he didn't move after she was done.

"You taught these monsters?" He grinned, "They're vicious little kids. One of the girls from your class came after me with a vengeance, following me around until I taught her how to throw senbon." She broke out into a smile.

"Would that be a pinkette or an ash blonde haired kid?" Because those two were the only girls who actually _tried_ really hard. Even Ino wasn't that into her regime and who knew what even was going on with Hinata. By next month, she would have to edit both of their regimes though. Sasuke's too, actually. He had taken to it like fish to water.

"The pinkette." She raised a brow, pleasantly surprised. Sakura had been getting good, so like Aime, she might have wanted to diversify a little more. "She doggedly followed me into the jonin station, and then walked right in behind me." She chuckled, un-surprised.

"If she had her eyes on you, she's never gonna stop." Then she rethought what she had said. Potential hunter quality? He leaned over a little, hand on the desk, a smile on his face.

"There are a few people meeting up in the bar tonight. A few of them watched that fight a month ago, and were quite impressed. You should come over sometime." He pulled away. She smiled at him, pleasantly, a little pleased.

"Thanks, I'll come over tonight after my shift then. It's been a while since I went there, anyway." He grinned at her.

"By the way, name's Genma." He waved at her before leaving. She blushed just a slightest bit, before going back to her work. It _has_ been a while.

-x-

The bar was a little musky from people smoking, when she entered. She recognized the bar-tender with a glance and nodded at him. There were quite a few chunins and jonins hanging around in clusters already. Some alone, and some in pairs sat on the bar table.

She noticed Genma's senbon and walked over to the table, surprised to see the people there.

A couple of the Anbu that was following Naruto around, Tsume Inuzuka who was surprisingly cozy with one of the Anbu- she seemed drunk, so that made sense- and Gai, a recent jonin-sensei who was a taijutsu master. They had totally different styles, but she was pleasantly surprised to see him.

She had fought a few taijutsu specialists already and she was actually kind of excited to talk to him.

Genma introduced her to everyone, and ended with Gai who was his genin teammate, apparently.

Sweet.

"Could I have a spar with you sometime, Gai-san? I'm a taijutsu specialist so it would be my honor if you take some time to spar with me sometime." Gai laughed loudly.

"YOSH! IT WILL BE MY PLEASURE TO SPAR WITH A BLOOMING FLOWER SUCH AS YOURSELF." Then he gave a hick-up. She sweat dropped. Probably not the best time to ask something like that. One of the Anbu nudged at him. What was his name again? Asahi?

"You're too loud again." Gai gave him a thumbs up. He rolled his eyes. She hid a grin. Then, a sleepy Tsume opened her eyes and spotted her.

"You're that sensei Kiba keeps talking about!" She grinned viciously, suddenly looking more awake. "You made him puke in one of your classes."

"I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, with the way you're looking at me," she told her bluntly. Tsume laughed loudly.

"He got crushed by a civvie with barely any before hand training. Trust me, he has more of a grudge against you than I ever will." Tsume told her with a grin. She poured her a drink.

"You'll be needing that with what the kids have planned." She raised an eyebrow, but accepted the class.

"They have something planned? And here I thought I was running them ragged." Tsume took in the amused glint with a bark of laughter.

"You were. That's why they got vicious." They both grinned at each other in perfect understanding, clinking their glasses and drank up up. She shuddered a little with the taste. It _had_ been a while.

Conversation flowed after that.

Genma had been about to tell her what he had taught Sakura before she shushed him. She wanted to experience it first hand instead of getting a spoiler. But Genma _probably_ hadn't taught her any poisons. But just in case, she would keep an extra eye out for it.

Maybe there were more reasons for Sakura to be happy than she had expected.

The night ended pleasantly. More for her and Genma than anyone, to be honest. And next day, there was an apartment number by her bedside table and empty sheets.

She got up for class with a happy sigh.

-x-

On the monthly anniversary after the all-out battle between the students, she had something fun planned.

After she ordered her students out, she ditched her shuriken and kunai packs in the room and went back out. It felt a little naked, but she didn't want to instinctive grab and shoot. Those were the instincts she had been fostering for about a decade, after all. And she didn't want her kids dead if she got a little distracted.

"We're gonna do something fun today!" She grinned and a few of them shivered, "It's been a month since that all out fight between all of you and I'm sure you have contingencies for something like that now. You have all trained and become better. So! Let's have an all out me vs the class fight."

There was a pause.

"WHATTT!" Naruto and a few others screamed.

"But what if you get hurt?" Naruto asked, his eyes wide. She smiled indulgently at him. She was a chunin though her skill level was higher.

"I'll give you two minutes to get a plan up and running." She shot a look to the Nara. "Your job is to capture and disable. Feel free to go for a vital spot. I will be disabling you by using taijustu, no weapons, I'll be using the Academy three as well. Feel free to use your clan jutsu and co-ordinate well."

"Start!" Naruto started charging ahead before Sasuke caught him from the back and he started coughing and choking.

"Idiot! She gave us a two minute planning session." The kids huddled up. Sasuke made a basic plan, Shikamaru added more, Sakura pointed out a few things and even Ino was suspiciously asking about somethings. A few civilians nervously asked about a few things and they hush-argued a bit more. At least they were decent at hiding their voices from travelling too far from their planning session.

Narumi waved at the few people she recognized watching them. She seemed to have become the entertainment for the shinobi staying in-village. She sighed and when two minutes were up. She clapped.

"Okay! Start!" Naruto and Sasuke charged ahead, a few civilians not far behind them. When she went to disable Sasuke, Naruto would weave in and distract her and when she went to deal with Naruto, Sasuke brought out his kunai. A few civilians nervously got theirs out too, but barely got to use them when she disabled them with kicks and punches in between dealing with Naruto and Sauke. Shikamaru spread his shadow towards her, trying to be sneaky, weaving through Sasuke and Naruto.

She kawarimi'd away jumping in the middle of the Ino-Shika-Choji trio. This was going to be their specialty- capture a small group or one person. They didn't fail. Too badly, that is. Shikamaru changed direction for his shadow faster than a month ago, Choji came in trying to punch her in the face- that kid was probably still pissed at her, she guessed by the viciousness- Ino went for her feet. A senbon almost buried in her calf- probably Sakura- but she was faster. She jumped, twirled and kawarimi'd midway before any of the launched kunai could land on her in mid air.

She burst in on a small group of civilians along with Hinata and and Kiba. Hinata was good. She had a focused look on her, and Kiba actually _snarled_ at her- cute- before going after her. Akamaru tried to bite her leg but she flamboyantly went on a handstand and kicked everyone back. There was barely any damage but it looked pretty cool, if she said so herself.

Then she went after Hinata, because she was the one who could disable her with a tap. Kiba was also good but Hinata was the one who deserved more of her attention. She probably made for a scary sight for the kid, but Hinata met her head on. Kiba tried to get her back, and a civvies threw a few kunai and shuriken wherever they found space, trying not to not the others. One almost hit Hinata but she ducked, weaved and tried to punch Narumi in the gut. Gotta say, that was impressive.

She disabled Hinata with a kick, and Kiba had barely a second to realize his distraction was gone before running into her fist. She made sure the rest of the unconscious civilians were a little farther so they wouldn't get caught in the crossfire. Shino came after her, then Aime weaved in and out, Sakura jumped from the sky with senbon hidden between her fingers. She caught Sakura by her arm, and using momentum knocked out everyone else.

Then with even less people, their fight took a turn for the vicious.

Sasuke and Naruto tag-teamed with Ino-Shika-Cho, with a few civvies distracting to stop them from become minced meat.

They actually hid a few times to recover energy while the other team distracted Narumi. They weaved in and out of fights, almost like they had done it a hundred times.

She was so proud.

Most of the disqualified kids were already up, and everyone was watching with surprise the end with surprise. Sasuke and Naruto might not have had much time to actually learn to co-ordinate, but they had excellent instincts for each other.

She pitied the person who would end up on their team.

Or maybe...

Hmm. She really needed to ask the Hokage about a few team related things.

When Ino-Shika-Cho looked a bit of the hopeless side, she went over and disabled them.

Soon Sasuke and Naruto couldn't pull out any more new things and she knocked them out simultaneously by slamming their heads. They might have a bump there.

She was surprised to see she was grinning like crazy by the end of it.

Maybe she was a little crazy, who knows? But it was _fun!_

Then she placed her first ever assessment about where they were overall ranked in combat.

After that fight, not many were surprised to see Naruto and Sasuke ranked No.1

-x-

Hinata was upset, Iruka told her. When she came after the spar class vs her, she looked like she would start crying.

Narumi was tempted to talk to her personally, but-

She was a clan kid.

Clan kids are always over-protected, specially when Hinata was the one involved in the Hyuuga affair so many years ago.

So the next class was an in-depth discussion. Most were still dealing with aches and pains so, she did stretches then brought them back to class for an in-depth discussion for her every action, and asked for their reasoning for every action they took.

A few had answers like 'I panicked' or 'I don't remember exactly what I did...', and she explained that those were fine, those weren't uncommon and this was why people built their reflexes, so their body reacts faster to the threat before their brain even fully registers it.

That's why there's a rule for 'never sneak up on a shinobi' in the Village. They could accidentally end up dead and it would literally be the victim's fault.

Then she went into some un-spoken shinobi etiquette that anyone who had been a shinobi for any reasonable amount of time could pick up. Some people might say she was spoon-feeding them a few things, but she called it 'survival'.

Of course, she did leave out quite a few social things that they would pick up but something dealing with sneaking up, or older and/or injured shinobi or finding good places to buy and maintain weapons were things they needed to know.

She was trying to stuff a decade of tips in their heads and sometimes she found herself floundering about what to speak about when there was so much to talk about.

And time passed.

She had more cooking sessions, more drinking sessions, more classes.

She had a lot more training time with no more desk job and she took advantage of it, pushing herself harder. Sometimes, she called over a few kids who needed personal supervision while she trained so she could keep an eye on them.

Sasuke was getting good, and Aime seemed to be playing with her chakra a lot- she definitely needed to keep an eye on her, above average control with enough creativity and open mind to _play_ with chakra? That girl was going _somewhere_ \- and she sometimes even sent a clone to watch Ganma train Sakura a little. Needless to say, she was glad one of those needles never touched her. She didn't need a cauterized hole through her body, thankyouverymuch.

Surprisingly, Shikamaru also dropped by sometimes. He didn't always do something, just watching her train while she watched all three of them, sometimes he asked her surprising strategic questions, some that she was genuinely surprised by. Well, she was supposed to train both mind and body, right?

Near the end, she would force Shikamaru to start exercising and while he did whine at her, he seemed to realize that at least she wouldn't push him till he broke, like she might do herself.

He got her a training manual.

She nearly busted a gut laughing.

-x-

Sadly, all good things came to an end.

The semester ended, Naruto tried to give the exam and failed, though he didn't seem that put out by it, surprisingly. Her class time seemed to increase and she was assigned the chakra portion of their curriculum as well, much to her surprise. Iruka took it well, saying she seemed to deal with the kids better though he wished she would be a little kinder in her punishments.

Two civilians got injured. They didn't follow the regime close enough and in one of her classes, they got injured. It wasn't a big deal, she dropped them off at the hospital and Ino along with a few civilians were horrified by their own slacking seemed to pick up the pace.

Shikamaru seemed to have a grim assessment of the field and he followed her regime like he was going to go to war. She wasn't exactly sure what was up with that, but she let him be after a few amused glances.

(He seemed to think she was an above average chunin in peacetime and the outside world was a far more dangerous place than his parents gave him an impression of, he was wondering if maybe they didn't have a little too high expectation of him when they said he would be 'just fine'. Shikaku deduced his thoughts and was amused enough to not correct that _no,_ his instructor was at least a special jonin with a delayed promotion sitting on his desk because she was doing a few too many Anbu missions, she wasn't exactly average.)

Her class was improving really well. Their inter-class relationships had tremendously increased and they had become much much better at coordinating with each other with a glance. Naruto became their biggest distraction, Sasuke went for pincers with him; following them, the class seemed to form duos they could manage with, aside from Ino-Shika-Cho, it seemed. They were pretty good by themselves.

Sakura and Aime seemed to become thick as thieves and were ganging up on Genma together, though Aime didn't seem _as_ interested. Aime took a few more first aid courses and leveled up, until her first aid knowledge was better than Narumi's though she could probably keep a person alive longer than Aime in the field. Field experienced was different from home-experience, after all.

Her kids took on side specialties, while she solely handled all their training. She had had to change up all their regimes at least two more times after the first time because they improved really really fast. Probably because they were still children, then she gave them their final test for the semester- a pure survival exercise with chunins coming to haunt them a time or two as enemy shinobi.

She kicked them into a training field that wasn't as bad as the Forest of Death, but only because nothing would straight up kill them there.

Some separated but most were in groups. She called in Iruka and a few other decent chunins too so they would all watch different groups and harass them when possible. It seemed their terrible two had struck again and a chunin actually got noticed and knocked out. When she found Sasuke and Naruto tying up the chunin, she had burst out laughing. Naruto kept poking him with his feet wondering when he would give up his trick.

She had spoiled them with her high skill level, it seemed. She just dragged the man back and dumped him with one of his friends.

The groups they formed was truly surprising.

Sasuke and Naruto were, of course, together, along with, it seemed Aime and Sakura. Aime had apparently saved their asses by pointing out _no, Naruto. That's a poisonous plant._

Then Sakura was ready to huff away but Aime had looked at her with sad eyes, talking about how she was worried about Naruto and Sasuke being idiots and eating weirder things. It turned into a scolding where they sat on their knees in front of Aime while she glared them into submission, telling them how sensei had already taught them about food, and _how could you not take her teachings to heart._

It was adorable.

The whole class was aware that she had claimed the three orphans as her favorites and pushed them even harder because they were under her eye more often, and some were actually surprised by how Aime, a nameless support-less orphan ended up being one of the top 10 combatants in their class.

Another group was Hinata, Kiba and Shino. These three hadn't always been together but they banded together as trackers and because their parents had pointed the other two out in the crowd. Hinata and Kiba's coordination had improved tremendously after their first fight against her, and Shino played full on support role behind them. Not to say, she hadn't made sure he could pack a punch when needed to, of course.

There was a group of five civilians who had various specialties. They became the comedic group. They wandered from one trap to another, somehow getting out of the previous trap before wandering to an unknown one. They had actually discovered a few traps most of the chunin didn't even know were still there.

It was hilarious!

(She was so so proud.)

There was a duo who fell to the chunin, but they also put up a good fight considering one was the brain and one was the brawn. They would probably end up separating though, but they would still survive the world. They were getting good, and who knew? Maybe in the last semester, they would become so good together they wouldn't even need to be separated.

The two injured civilians who didn't follow her regime weren't bad, but they brought their group down. They broke formation when faced with a fast opponent and let them get in the middle. It was too easy.

Out of all the teams, only four teams came out of the forest whole. The comedic five, Ino-Shika-Cho, the tracker trio, and the demolition group.

It felt like a joke, to be honest, but she was very proud.

Near the end, she had put up two average chunin going almost all out and somehow they all seemed to have managed. Ino had a new hair cut and looked like she would collapse where she stood, but she still stood by her own power by pure stubbornness. Shikamaru just seemed tired and Choji had a few cuts on his arm, but nothing deep. He did seem to have a bandaged chest though, under his half-shredded top.

Sakura had a mild head injury which was bleeding but Aime had used her first aid skills well. Sasuke's shirt was half burnt and he had a second degree burn on his shoulder, but he stood proudly in front of her too. Naruto had thrown off his eye-seering orange shirt and even his black shirt and pants had rips everywhere. (Did she need to teach him how to stitch his clothes?)

Hinata had a broken wrist, and Kiba looked a little feral, standing protectively in front of her. He probably knew better than most that Hinata was almost useless without her hands. It was her taijustu's main focus and she hadn't learned to use her other chakra points that well yet. Half of Shino's hair looked burnt off but he seemed mostly fine other than that.

The other five stood cluttered, not showing her their backs, looking around too often to be casual. They had been dropped in a few genjutsu, it seemed. They were in decent condition though, one seemed to have cracked ribs, with the way they were holding it; another had a fractured elbow. One of them limped but she wasn't sure what exactly was wrong.

They all stood in front of her.

And she was so so proud.

"All of you have passed your exam with flying colors. You faced off two unknown chunin and won. Congratulations, students! Now everyone, follow me to the hospital, and I can even show you how to get fast and quick check ups without being kept for more observation than needed!"

Aime snorted.

"Please, as if." Because she knew the medics well.

(Needless to say, she failed quite terribly. She got scolded in front of her students by the medic and it was like a drama with the way everyone stood around watching them.)


	4. Chapter 4

The second semester started with a crash into Gai in one of her morning runs. She ran along side him with his student trailing behind.

"Gai-san. It's a pleasure to meet you again! You haven't come by in a while!" Gai grinned with all his teeth.

"I do not go there often, blooming flower! It is not a habit I wish to take up!" She blinked in surprise at the nickname. Maybe he forgot her name?

"Would you like to spar with me after this?" She asked, because she had asked before and he had accepted. No harm in asking now. It was dawn, she still had time before class and an extreme spar would be amazing. She hadn't had a spar in a while.

They ran around the Village side by side, Gai motivating his mini-me into pushing further and she matched his pace. They weren't going as fast as she liked to, probably because of the kid, so she waved at Gai and picked up speed. After an hour, when they met again, Gai told her they were going to the training field and she came with.

They did handstands, and she did too. She didn't generally traverse the Village like that, but that was okay, she could learn. She stretched a little and Gai gave his kid a few instructions and then-

They sparred.

It was epic. It was brutal, and they were both grinning by the end of it. She gave Gai a few bruises and he hit her right back. It was an amazing work out. They cracked the ground, threw around some trees and generally had a pure-taijutsu jonin level smack down of epic proportions. Gai's kid had stars in his eyes. Heck, Gai had stars in his eyes. Gai and his kid had a moment and the kid started gushed about about fast they moved, and he couldn't even see anything.

Gai and her shared a grin at the gushing, then Gai invited her for spar in the morning whenever she wanted one. The Hokage might not be as pleased with the broken trees or the broken ground though, but that was okay. After all, they needed to push themselves, right?

When she entered class on the first day of the semester though, everyone gasped aloud and some actually stood up on spotting her. She had a bruise on her chin, she knew. She had almost cracked Gai's ribs for that one.

She told everyone, it was fine and she had just sparred with the best taijutsu specialist she had ever met and they ended up beating each other to a pulp. She warned them that they might see her like that more often, because heck yes, was she planning to take up his offer for spar. She needed to get her training up to mark too.

Then she started with chakra.

Kids were always wanting to be active, so she made most of the curriculum into an activity instead of just a lecture. She brought out her chakra and showed it in the visible spectrum. She told them that because she was a taijutsu specialist, her yang was more than her yin. A genjutsu specialist on the other hand, trained their mind more than their body so they would have yin more than yang.

She probably talked about yin and yang more than she should have, talking about balance even using Sasuke and Naruto as example because they really _were_ the perfect example.

Two opposites but there was a like-mindedness there too; like in the symbol, there was a little of yin in yang and a little of yang in yin.

Then she talked about elemental affinities and how by feeling different people's chakra, you could guess their elemental affinities.

They asked about hers and she told them to guess. Whoever guessed right and had the right reason behind it, would get one favor from her- anything that was in her power to give and wasn't illegal.

They got excited by that and it basically turned into a guessing game. If they got either reasoning or her affinity wrong, she told them they were wrong. Then, to her absolute delight they started discussed more in depth of it.

She left them to it for almost half an hour until they reluctantly decided they needed more research.

She started on chakra control and what it was, how it helped control jutsu. She talked about different exercises different countries did in their academy and named the more advanced ones that she wasn't allowed to teach them.

Then she winked.

She told them how chakra control rarely hurt themselves unless they blew up a tree and it fell on them or they didn't know how to swim. (They did, she knew. It was in the second year curriculum.)

More chakra control was rarely ever a bad thing. She just wasn't allowed to teach them in class hours.

But first, she warned them to finish up leaf exercise.

Then she finally saw what was going on with Naruto's leaf.

His couldn't maintain the minimum amount of chakra. He kept switching back to a higher amount of chakra that he felt was appropriate. No wonder he was good with kawarimi. But how was his transformation good? It was a genjutsu.

When she told him to do a transformation, she was surprised to see a solid transformation.

He could have hurt himself with this. How did Iruka never _tell her?_

(Hours later, Iruka would reassure her that he had told the Hokage about it and he was doing a ninjutsu instead of a genjutsu, and it was _okay. Naruto was just fine._ )

She set him up with more leaves all over his body, hoping the multiple leaves would distract him enough to send the same amount of chakra and cut it into multiple parts for every leaf. It succeeded, to her relief, though he still blew up some leaves when he lost concentration.

It's too bad the Konoha archieve didn't have any more less precise chakra control exercises. That could have helped Naruto learn gradually like everyone else, instead of just dumping him into the deep end. (Though the deep end probably would have been medical chakra control exercises. Boy, are they difficult.)

Sakura's chakra control was really really good. She was tempted to bring in the medical equipment to measure exactly how precise it was, but wow. Sakura had natural talent. Aime was making her leaf swirl and it was also a really good exercise so she got the kids with good enough chakra to the side and created an exercise for them.

They stack leaves and make every other leave swirl in the opposite direction.

Even Sakura couldn't achieve it on the first day. Two leaves swirling in two opposite directions was hard. One of comedic five, Amane, was so frustrated that she threw her leaves and walked out of class.

Her duo partner, Kizaki, ran after her with Narumi's permission and after ten minutes of bickering that everyone onside the class could hear, they came back in and apologized. Narumi stacked five leaves on her finger and swirled them in different directions.

She explained the theory behind it- with Sakura taking quick notes with one hand- and reassured them that it was fine if they could never do it. The more that you stacked the harder it became, but it was also the basis for chakra strings.

Aime's eyes sparkled and she got down to business with a focus that almost put Sakura to shame. I told Amane to start with swirling one leaf and when that was comfortable, add another. They could try swirling all on one side- which would be easier- or start off with different directions- which would get them used to it faster, while increasing their control too.

Aime and Sakura took it as a challenge though Aime was closer to doing it in two directions than Sakura. Sakura had a easier time stacking them though.

Sakura and Aime were a pair that she would absolutely loathe to part. They were learning similar things but their focus was in totally opposite directions. Sakura was turning out to be a mid to close range while Aime seemed to aim for support and mid-range. Maybe with a weapon other than senbon... Aime didn't seem as interested as Sakura in learning it, after all.

Then Naruto punched Shikamaru, and it devolved into a huge incident.

-x-

Naruto crossed his arms and stood with a stubborn look on his face, Sasuke not far behind him, eyeing Ino- who had almost stabbed him- and Shikamaru stood on her other side with Choji and Ino glaring at Sasuke and Naruto in turns.

"Now who is going to explain what happened?" She demanded, looking at Naruto and Shikamaru.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru mumbled under in breath before stilling when she turned her eyes on him.

"Will you be doing the honors then, Shikamaru-kun?" She gave him an expectant look. He glanced at Naruto, who shot him a surprisingly hard glare. Narumi looked at Naruto then sighed.

"What happened, Naruto? Did Shikamaru-kun say anything? I might not have been here long, but I would never expect you to start a fight unprovoked." She sat on her knees and looked at Naruto, a worried expression. Behind her, Ino huffed.

Naruto glanced at Shikamaru from beside her, and he stepped up.

"It was a misunderstanding, sensei. It won't happen again." She looked at Shikamaru's face then back at Naruto's. They weren't going to tell her the reason then. She stood up and frowned.

"Whatever the reason was, your fist is never the way to resolve things. You will never see a jonin beating up a chunin because of a disagreement. The only time hurting an ally is allowed is when you spar. Otherwise, you WILL NOT hurt an ally. The Hokage, or your direct superior could write you up for insubordination, attempted sabotage or espionage." She glared at Naruto. "This sort of thing? It is not allowed. With that kind of black mark on your record, no one would even consider you for Hokage. Do you understand me, Naruto?"

Naruto flinched. Hard.

She stood strong and looked him in his hurt eyes. Whatever Shikamaru had said, hurting him for his words was not the right answer.

"Take a ten minute break." She announced to the class and Naruto ran for it. Sasuke barely waited a moment to run after him too. She sighed, ignoring Shikamaru's surprised look.

"Now, will you tell me what it was?" She asked them. Shikamaru stuttered for a second surprised before Ino stepped up.

"Shikamaru made a misleading comment about you and Naruto took it badly." She pressed her lips together.

"What did you say, Shikamaru?" She looked at the boy, who had respected her for some time and she felt like she would have been genuinely shocked if he said something really bad about her. Shikamaru just wasn't that kind of person.

"I confronted him about your favorism." He mumbled under his breath, hoping she couldn't hear him. Narumi sighed, already feeling exhausted.

"I was wondering when someone would bring that up." She said, before kneeling down again, in front of Shikamaru. He looked away, avoiding her eye.

For him, she was probably the first teacher he got invested in, and he wanted her to be invested in him too. She hadn't been expecting it, but on second thought, hadn't she been so jealous of her teammate as well when he was favored so heavily by their sensei? When her sensei passed on his favorite weapon to her teammate and didn't even look at the other two? Shikamaru understood that she got invested in people by training them and getting involved in their lives that way.

"Shikamaru. You're the Nara clan heir. You _have_ your specializations. I can't get as involved in your lives as you would like me to. I can only support the civilian kids who barely have any support when you have a whole clan backing you up. I'm not trying to show partiality but Sasuke and Naruto are the only two who may be considered from a clan, but without the backing of one, making the shinobi world far more dangerous for them than you can imagine." Shikamaru was looking at her. He knew most of this, she knew he did. But he needed to hear this from her too.

"I can add a few people in when I train, but then I'm trying to focus on improving _myself._ What do you think will happen if many of you end up training by me?"

"You'll end up teaching us again." Shikamaru said. She smiled, a little sadly, but it was just the truth. She couldn't spend all of her hours training them when she needed to improve herself as well.

"This is why I drew up training regimes, diet regimes. This is why I insisted you follow it. I might not be there, but I spent hours writing them down for you. Shouldn't you just follow them better instead?" Then she gave him a mischievous grin.

"Who knows, maybe with your jonin sensei's permission, I can teach you a few jutsu's on the side." Shikamaru thought about what she said before scrunching up his face like he ate a lemon.

"Troublesome." She laughed, noticing the way he didn't say no. She stood up, ruffled his hair and pushed him along into the crowd of students trying to listen in.

"Go on ahead, now." He nodded, turning around smoothly and heading for his friends. Ino hit his head while Shikamaru rubbed the bad of his neck with an exasperated expression.

Now, for Naruto.

She went out looking for Naruto.

Naruto was hidden away at an empty class room in the Academy building. It was on one of the higher floors, and Sasuke was sitting beside him, looking ahead while Naruto was curled up in a ball. Sasuke spotted her first, and stood up, walking away. Surprisingly, he didn't even give her one of the protective dismissive looks he gives people who sometimes bully Naruto. She wasn't sure if that was reassuring or not.

Naruto glanced up when Sasuke stood up and walked away and on spotting her, he hid his face back down between his knees.

Narumi sat down beside Naruto and sighed. Then she put her hand on his back and slowly rubbed it round and round. He stilled for a moment, before he took a shaky breath and looked up at her. His expression...he looked wrecked. He wasn't crying- thank god- or she would have felt like the biggest ass in the world, but she still sort of threatened his dream.

""I think you can be the Hokage, Naruto." She said quietly. She wasn't exactly 100% sure of her theory, but she believed she was right, because it really made sense. That was the kind of person her father praised, the kind of man their Village looked up to.

"A Hokage needs two things- a legacy to hold on to, and a determination to change the world. You have plenty of both." Naruto's expression changed as she talked but she barely noticed that, thinking about their Hokages. Her hands crept up his back, softly massaging his head. "A single reason is all you need. The First Hokage thought that protecting the children was worth it, the Second Hokage thought the next generation would carry on his legacy, the Third..." she smiled faintly, then looked at him. "The Third tried to protect his Village _from_ his legacy, and the Forth directly saved all our lives."

"Their immortal will, the Will of Fire, is not an easy thing to carry. But out of all my students, I find myself believing in yours the most." Naruto blushed heavily and she swore his eyes were watery. He wiped his face with his sleeve before grinning a bright bright grin that seemed like it would light up the world from within. She ruffled his hair with a smile.

"You're not going to make me say anything more cheesy, right?" Naruto grinned mischevously.

"I don't know. I feel like there was still something else you could say to me." His grin was unfailing so she laughed. Then she leaned in and pressed a kiss on his forehead.

"Come on, let's go back to class. The training portion is still left." She got up, brushed the dirt and held out a hand for Naruto. He took it and they walked back to class.

-x-

While the incident ended well enough, there was suddenly an odd competition between Ino and Sasuke since then. For any one-on-one fights between them, Ino seemed to come after Sasuke with surprising viciousness. She actually drew blood once, firing up Sasuke's blood. Ino did end up tangled in a wire with shuriken, unable to make a single hand-seal, by the end of it; but it was a surprising occurrence from Ino, who generally put in about an average amount of work in her workouts.

The only time she actually tried was during team fights, when Ino-Shika-Cho was brought together. Something lit a fire under her, and Narumi liked it. She had heard Ino and Sakura were good friends thought she hadn't seen as much evidence as she thought that strong a friendship would require...but, she put in a match between Ino and Sakura after getting beaten by Sasuke.

It made her angry. While training when angry wasn't recommended, Ino seemed to work it well. She became focused and pulled some unexpected things. When Narumi put her against Kazaki, who- going by physical fitness- was at a higher level than her, she got frustrated and pulled off a mid-air kawarimi to a reverse kick in the head. Kazaki barely had the chance to try to block it.

Narumi called her out and asked her if she was free in the evening. It was generally the time, she marked up progress for her kids, but her talk with Ino was probably going to be pretty important too.

Some people- like Shikamaru- had actually changed quite a bit in the post-semester holidays. Others- like Ino- had changed very little. Ino might have been more motivated, but Sakura had started way earlier than her. Sakura and Aime had ended up much closer friends than Ino and Sakura were, but they still _did_ seem to have some kind of bond, so they might just rebuild that soon. That would actually be pretty good. Ino couldn't afford to use much chakra, because some of her clan jutsu were a little chakra intensive, so she would be a good addition.

Shikamaru's clan jutsu might be enough for him but Ino's wasn't as offensive, just yet. She needed a little more damaging power.

After Academy ended, she had a spar with Naruto, who had improved a lot. He _was_ working side-by-side with Sasuke and keeping up nowadays. While in the first two months, Sasuke unconsciously lowered his level to achieve that perfect teamwork they had seen then, now, Naruto was keeping up just fine. By fighting her so often, he had started to push his own body's speed higher to keep up, and Sasuke did the same to keep up with _Naruto_.

Of course, Naruto did it all unconsciously while she was very consciously keeping her own speed to a level Naruto would have to concentrate every moment of the spar. He tired out quickly not only because of the high level combat, but also because of his own intense concentration. She had him keep a few headache remedies at his home as well, because she had definitely been needing them when she was in his position a time or two.

Then was her scheduled time with Ino.

Ino, thankfully seemed to have arrived with appropriate clothing, a small bag and a frown. She raised an eyebrow at her, confused by her reaction.

"You didn't call Shika." She said, dumping her bag on the side. She heard water bottles inside and something soft- towels?

"There was no need. I'm making you do the work out from the regime I set for you. Start with the stretches, I'll know you if skip anything." Ino huffed but dropped down and started stretching. Narumi sat in front of a tree and starting checking up the progress the students made in the holidays.

Ino finished the stretches, and started running around the training field. As noted, she did have terrible stamina so by the end of it, she was breathing really hard.

"Do I really have to do this?" She whined, starting her sit-ups. Narumi didn't say anything in reply. Ino skipped ten reps, trying to go for the next exercise with shaking legs.

"Give me twenty more." Ino startled. "Now." Narumi looked up at her. Ino scowled and got back to it.

"But I only skipped ten reps." She whined lowly. Narumi rolled her eyes.

"Yes, the other ten is punishment." Ino finished a little more than half her exercises, before collapsing in a sweaty heap.

"I can't do any more." She gasped out. Narumi kept the profile she finished, inside an open storage seal.

"Two minutes, then get back to the rest." Ino didn't reply, busy gasping breaths. After a while, she opened her mouth again.

"How did forehead do this every day? Hell, how did Shika..." Narumi stood over her sweaty figure and offered her a bottle of water.

"They found a goal to work for. I don't know what goal it was, but everyone who had any amount of significant change didn't run away from hard work for their goal, they embraced it. Sakura, right now, is more than five times as strong as she was when she first started with me. She can punch through a brick wall, or a human being, if she so wants. You _have_ improved but you have done the minimum you need to stay average in class."

Narumi bent down, beside the girl's face.

"Do you think Konoha's enemies will spare Shikamaru and Choji, if you don't have enough strength to defeat them?"

Ino was always the most moved by Shikamaru and Choji, no matter what she called her friendship with Sakura.

She _snarled_ , got up and finished off the rest of the exercises.

By the time she was done, Narumi was back sitting against the tree, casually looking through profiles.

"You like gardening," Narumi stated. It was a side note by Iruka in one of her earlier files. He had put her down as a potential poison specialist. Ino nodded, trying to keep her heavy breathing under control. Good, that was important.

"You should learn to make poisons. You probably already know some, just by the general knowledge, but don't experiment without someone more experiences beside you, or you could be dead by the fumes, before anyone even knows something is wrong." Ino hesitated but nodded.

Ino's personality was quite controversial. Narumi actually liked it. Ino rarely said anything real, so you should _never_ focus on her words, but on her actions. Narumi smiled at her.

"Ask permission from your father before approaching a poison specialist. I'm not taking your full responsibility here, that still falls with your Clan Head." aka daddy dearest. Ino flipped her hair behind her, a mean smile on her face.

"You don't have to worry, sen-sei. I'll make do just fine on my own." Ino's words were almost mocking but she strutted away quite quickly.

Narumi snorted.

That girl would be good with espionage.


	5. Chapter 5

The first time she pulled out a weapon against her students, Sasuke grinned blood-thirstily and Naruto looked like a cat who got the canary.

Her most recent teacher vs students had forced her to pull out a weapon.

She wasn't sure if she was happy, blood thirsty or sad that she couldn't put it off anymore.

Then, since she was a _good_ sensei, she caught every one of her kids with their own weapon. (She might have been a tad petty there, but hey! it was a good lesson they all needed to learn.)

A weapon was to be respected and everyone needed to know about the famous weapon masters that were still alive. So that battle led up to a bunch of sweaty tired kids learning about the Swordsmen of Kiri, a few S-ranked shinobi from everywhere- some that might be anywhere- a few A-ranked as well, and a fee well-known B ranked who were making a name for themselves. All of them were still noted to be alive in the most recent bingo book. Not that she informed them of that, but actual examples might save them.

Naruto asked about famous Konoha-nin, and she reluctantly talked about a few famous names known in the Bingo book- Maito Gai, a taijutsu specialist; Sarutobi Asuma, one of the 12 Guardians; Kameri Kikiro, also known as Guardian Gate, a defensive specialist; Kakashi Hatake, known by a million other names, like Copy Cat nin and Kakashi of the Lightening Blade.

She eyed Sasuke to see if he recognized the name but he didn't seem to. Perhaps she needed to talk to him about Kakashi? He was a famous Sharingan user, Sasuke was bound to be taught under him at least once whenever he managed to unlock his sharingan.

There was a little whispering while she was talking. She raised an eyebrow. The noise died down to acceptable levels.

Honestly, even when tired, these kids were rowdy.

"You might see them in the streets, some of you might even be taught by them," unlikely as that was, she mentally snorted at the image, "but you will not harass them about their experiences. Every famous name has a trauma related to them. Do you remember my lesson on shinobi etiquette?"

"Yes, sensei." The class chorused.

"Name them off then," she replied with an amused smile. The class took turns speaking about the rules she had stated off. She almost laughed when one of her kids messed up-

"Never sneak up on a blind-wait, was it blind?" He looked around and Shikamaru covered his face with his hands in shame. Her lips quirked up. It was one of her basic rules, but it was also Kazaki speaking. He seemed somehow say all the wrong things, but always managed to do things right when it mattered.

"-injured," hissed his partner, Amane with a glare. Kazaki rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish laugh.

"Right, injured shinobi." He sat down. Shikamaru banged his head on the desk, before deciding he didn't want to pick it up anymore and probably ended up taking a cap nap when she didn't say anything.

"Well, you got the basics right. So this is also a part of it. While it is not always traumatizing, it is better if you don't ask how any famous shinobi got their titles from. They won't harm you, but it might hurt _them."_

The mini-shinobi nodded seriously at her. She wondered for the first time if maybe she should have kept them a little more soft.

"One day," she smiled at them, "it could be you a teacher is talking about, you know?" Their eyes sparkled. They understood part of it but the underlying sadness, she hoped they never understood. It could mean, someday someone they knew might die.

"Class dismissed."

She had an open invite to the bar, after all. She could go visit, surround herself with a few friendly faces. Maybe get drunk and go home feeling better about herself.

That's not exactly what ended up happening, but she was still fine with the end result.

-x-

The next morning was bright and shone right in her face. She was late for her morning meet up with Gai, but she sometimes did end up like that, so he would carry on until she arrived. She turned away from her open window and faced a scared open back, sitting up on her bed, drinking coffee that she hadn't prepared.

She blinked up at an amused Genma's face, getting up on her elbow before accepting the kiss he gave her and watching him finish coffee in her mug.

"You're generally gone by now." Genma's lips quirked up, hidden by the cup.

"You haven't visited me yet, so I figured, I might as well." She huffed out a laugh.

"is that your excuse?" She collapsed back on the bed. Genma kept her cup on her bedside table with a barely audible 'clink' and looked at her in the face.

"No, not really. You were talking about your kids a lot last night." He looked her in the eye. She covered eyes with an arm.

"Ugh. Was I bringing the mood down too much?" Genma laughed.

"A little. I was your designated non-drunk buddy." She let out a few un-amused chuckles.

"Are you going to make me talk about it?" She looked at him with one eye open. He sat, leaning against the headboard.

"Didn't you want to? You held my arm until you fell asleep." She blushed, then covered it up with a frown.

"Then, where are my clothes? I don't remember that part too well." Genma's eyes lit up. She frowned harder. He was laughing at her.

"You used chakra, then you puked remember?" She covered her head with her sheets. That was a terrible moment. Why did she had the amazing idea to get the alcohol out of her body to get sober? All it did was give her an headache. She made him give her medicine then forced him to stay cause she wanted to tell someone how she hadn't yet talked to Sasuke about the massacre yet, or to Naruto who had almost cried at her, and she was a _terrible teacher why did Hokage-sama give her this assignment shewastooinvested._

She had been sad.

"Now I do. Thank you for that wonderful image, Genma." He laughed again.

"I'll get you some water." He walked to her kitchen, and threw her the bottle while picking up his own shirt and wearing it. She opened the cap and sighed sadly at the end of the beautiful sight. Scars _did_ make a man look good.

"Oh, and Gai dropped by to cancel." He grinned, "One of his students hurt themselves and he wasn't sure when he would return." She groaned.

"That's terrible news! Why are you giving it with a smile?" She threw her cup at him. He caught it.

"Hey, most people don't like training with Gai. But what do I know?" She narrowed her eyes at his retreating figure. The tap in her kitchen was switched on. He was probably cleaning her mug. She hit a smile. He was so terribly domestic sometimes.

"You like his training!" She told him, over the sound of the running water. The tap water stopped. She got up and hurriedly wore her clothes. "Maybe someone should tell him you want to be included as well..." Genma shot out like an arrow. She laughed and jumped out the window barefoot.

Genma peaked his head out at her and rolled his eyes. Then threw her shoes after her.

"Don't you dare." He warned after. She stuck out her tongue.

"Shouldn't have given me my shoes then!"

"I have your apartment." He countered. She smirked back.

"Then I can take yours." He shook his head at her.

"It might be chakra locked..." he led. She laughed.

"Just as tightly as mine was." He grinned.

"Don't you dare." He threw her flack jacket. She caught it and slipped it on. She stuck a tongue out and ran away.

"We'll see!"

It was a fun morning.

-x-

Her class that morning was light-hearted as if to reflect the morning she had. Her kids were practicing and doing well. One of her brain and brawn duo, pulled out a surprising win over Amane and Kazuki. The latter taking the failure easier than the former.

She commended them for getting so much better since the semester finals. The two happily accepted the compliment. Sasuke snorted.

In response, she made Sasuke and Aime fight against Naruto and Sakura. It had been heading for Naruto's win since Sakura had her ever-scary senbon that put holes through everything, when Aime pulled out a needle with an attached shinobi wire acting as thread. Sakura quickly back peddled and Naruto followed her, confused.

Then Aime pushed her chakra through the wire and used it like a staff, which turned to a whip at times. Narumi wasn't sure if she was using her chakra to make a change or was she just very strategically stopping her chakra from travelling through the wire. Whatever it was, it bought time for Sasuke and changed the flow of the battle in its entirety.

The wire wasn't a chakra conducting wire like the kind Sasuke used, so it got burnt through soon enough. But that was still far too slow for Naruto and Sakura to win.

A mixed two-against-two sometimes gave rise to a lot of new things. She was sure Ino, with her creative eye had found a few things she could recreate in her own time, just by watching her classmates. Her class, overall, were nothing like the slacking half-hearted class she had first accepted. They wouldn't even think about making fun of Naruto anymore, there weren't even the rumored fangirls she had heard about half-way through her first semester.

Perhaps, she had unknowingly ended a few friendships and created new ones, but she didn't regret it. Her class was cohesive in a way very few units were, Shikamaru wasn't the only strategist in the class, because he really couldn't be everywhere all the time, but his skills had improved many times over since the first fight.

Sakura shone like a diamond, scaring even Sasuke into putting up distance. Naruto was one of the few who dared to challenge her in close range, ignoring injuries he received and avoiding the rest. He became better at knowing what kind of injuries he could accept and what he couldn't.

(Mostly because he knew she would step in and he didn't want the fight to stop just yet.)

Aime was ruthless in a way only orphans could be. She took advantage of every opening, used whatever she could get her hands on. She once won a fight using dirt, a cloth and hair. She was good at using her environment to her advantage.

Ino was slow at improvements but Shikamaru seemed to have brushed off on her because she would sometimes use small tricks that changed the whole game against her opponents. Anyone unused to her quick mind would have a hard time against her.

Kazuki was good. A little clumsy with his words but when he moved, he _moved._ He used acrobatics, sledge of hands and had teethed by stealing from genin and chunin in the streets. He was from a decently well off civilian family so one of the chunin who caught him thought it was a one-time occurrence and insisted he use his skill for the Village. Felling slightly threatened, the civilian family gave up their second son to the Academy.

Amane, on the other hand, was a diva. She _hated_ when things didn't go her way. She was short tempered and just as quick to upset. But when something stole her heart, she wouldn't stop until she had it. Or unless something else shinier caught her eye. She was one of the few who started pushing herself almost as soon as she got her hands on Narumi's regime.

Her brain and brawn duo, Ai and Aluka, were twin sisters. Ai was an airhead but would follow her sister to hell and back. Aluka, on the other hand, always teased her sister but when it came down to it, she would fight till her last breath. During the final test, they had impressed Narumi a lot when Aluka got up, puking blood with a kunai in her hand and still tried to face off against the chunin fighting them. The chunin swore she manifested killing intent.

The other three, who were part of her 'comedic five' in her exam, had been friends before Narumi arrived. They hadn't liked Naruto much then, but when he outlasted everyone in their class, they had been watching with their mouths agape. They had ended up defending Naruto a few times in the market whenever he came to buy vegetables because their parents had been spreading Naruto-hate for quite some time and they were sick of it.

Naruto had almost burst out crying, they had explained to Narumi with helpless looks on their faces. She had laughed and thanked them for their help. They sighed in relief that she wouldn't be trying to kill them for making him cry or something.

Sasuke and Naruto were the gem of her class. Sasuke soaked up everything she taught like a sponge and even more that was left unsaid. He took in implications like they were spoken words. It wasn't a surprise he was called a genius, because he was. In that field, at least. When he grew, he could take the political field by storm.

In Naruto...in Naruto, she saw charisma. The kind the Forth Hokage had, the kind the First Hokage might have. The kind leaders carried. It was still a tiny thing, blossoming more and more as the months passed and his classmates _looked_ at him. He bloomed like a wildflower. Even Sasuke, sometimes ended up looking at him, checking his reaction, like you would a leader's. It was surprising.

Leaders weren't born. They were made. But, Naruto was a born leader. He sparked debates, ideas that took Shikamaru and Sakura away for hours, he pulled off a crazy attack that Sasuke instinctively followed, blind to the outcome but still willing to go along.

She wished she hadn't been the only one. She wished others had seen what she had seen. She wished someone had taken him in. She wished her Hokage hadn't been this old person who seemed to always have something against his own shinobi. She wished her Hokage had been the kind, charismatic Forth who only few had been lucky to know.

But they were all her students and she wanted them all to survive and have a good future. Her job was to build a base that their jonin sensei would round up on.

She kept saying that, hoping it would stick someday. It hadn't yet and she was doubting it ever would now. The year would end in a few more months and she would obsessively check up on her past students, hoping no one of them were marked _**KIA.**_

Maybe she would never even meet most of them again. Or maybe Naruto would end up Hokage and Sasuke would be by his side. Maybe they could be the first dual Hokages in history. She laughed to herself at the thought.

This semester, though, she had access over their chakra training on top of their combat. She smirked at the thought. She had a fun exercise planned for them.

-x-

The next day, she was checking up on her students' progress when Amane came up to her with a big bright smile.

"Sensei! Senseiii! I did it! I did it!" She raised an eyebrow at the excited kid.

"And what exactly did you achieve?" She opened up her palm and showed five leaves stacked one over the other. She glared at the leaves and slowly, incrementally slowly, the leaves swirled. The first leaf went clockwise the other going anti-clockwise, and so on until the fifth leave sort of fluttered clockwise. Narumi gaped at her palm.

So. Amane did it.

She achieved something that was considered to be an achievement for an actual medic, abet a low level one. But it was something actual medics struggled with.

"Wow." She said because Amane was expecting some praise for her amazing work, and she actually had no words for it. "Wow." She grinned, her heart filling with pride and joy.

"Oh god, Amane!" She grinned, practically lifting her up.

"You did it!" She looked at Amane and back to her hand incredulously. She hadn't even been expecting _Amane_ to do it. She was good, but the girl gave up far too quickly to sit and practice. Amane glanced back and Kazuki gave her a thumbs up and a wink. She stifled a laugh when she noticed Amane blush a little.

What positive achievement from her crush could do for a girl...

She ruffled her hair.

"I guess, this means, we need to have a talk then." She looked at the class, glaring at the kids staring at them, "Get back to work."

Narumi brought her student away from her nosy students and to the side.

"You have showed an amazing talent with your chakra, Amane. With your control you can easily get into even the medical field, if you so wish." Amane twiddled her fingers hesitantly.

"Do you have somewhere you're thinking about going?" Amane looked up hesitantly.

"Um. I was thinking, sensing?" She asked, her voice squeaking a little at the end. Amane glanced at her encouraging expression before forging forward.

"Kazuki told me he wanted to get into scouting. Or maybe some special division or something." Anbu? She raised an eyebrow wondering how Kazuki even knew about it. It was a open secret, yes. But only among shinobi. She smirked, thinking some idiot chunin was speaking about it without realizing an Academy student overheard them. She should get the identity out from him so the person could be punished, at least.

"So I read up on about a few different divisions, and sensors caught my eye." She looked into her eyes, felling more confident. "It requires really really good chakra control so I worked really hard on it, and I think I can get in." Narumi smiled at her.

"Yes, you can. First, you'll have to get to chunin before you try for different divisions though, but if you don't get a jonin instructor, I can write you a letter of recommendation to try out as genin." Amane nodded excitably, not paying much attention to not getting a sensei as genin. While most people had high hopes about jonin sensei after Academy, she had given her students the hard truth with statistics laid out.

It wasn't always the students' fault. Sometimes there just weren't enough willing jonin or they didn't display what the jonin personally wanted to see. There was also this one-time event where the genin had surprised their jonin sensei so much that they received an instant promotion to chunin- after they finished the required number of missions- that is.

There were many reasons why students couldn't get jonin senseis. Some were scouted by different divisions, some were made to be apprentices of some famous chunin or jonin. Some people were kicked out of the shinobi program all together, not like that would ever happen to _her_ kids. There even were some out-of-Academy missing nins. They weren't given much thought because Academy didn't generally have much training aside from the basics, that was.

After class, she called out Sasuke. Naruto hesitated by the door for a few moments, before she waved him off. He nodded and left.

Sasuke came to her a little more eagerly, before noticing her stiff expression and realizing that no, this wasn't an expedition to increase his weights again, though, she didn't exactly do those herself anymore. Sasuke could do them himself now.

She made him accompany her to her house silently, and made him some tea. Smiling when she noticed her washed and dried cup Genma had left that morning. She offering him a glass of warm soothing tea and sat him down on her couch, sitting opposite him with a cup of tea of her own.

"I had something to talk to you about, but since it was a personal matter, I wanted to do this away from the public eye." Not that this was much away, considering there was an Anbu casually hanging around outside her house. Sasuke took a sip of tea.

"What is this about?" He asked. She studied him silently. He didn't seem anxious and he really did trust her, so wanted to return this trust too.

"In the Third War, an Uchiha died. He wasn't the only one, but he was the only one who left a part of himself with someone else." Sasuke frowned, his grip on the glass tightened.

"What are you saying? There is an Uchiha child running around somewhere?" His expression was incredulous, but at least he wasn't jumping on the couch and running off to find him. Or maybe, she had been spending too much time beside Naruto.

"No, that's not it. Kakashi Hatake, the Copy Cat nin. Do you remember him?" Sasuke got an irritated expression at her dancing around.

"Yes, of course I do. I remember all your lessons." Narumi sighed.

"He hides one of his eyes because it has a Sharingan. He received it near the end of the Third War and it caused a huge scandal in the Uchiha clan. I don't know much else, but I suspect you might be taught under him at least once." His eyes narrowed thoughtfully, his face was still set in a frown but he didn't seem like he was really absorbing what she was saying.

"That's bloodline theft." Sasuke's lips pressed so hard it turned white. A hint of anger showing up.

"It was ruled in his favor. I don't know all the details, but..." she steeled herself with a sip, "it's probably recorded somewhere." Sasuke flinched. She sighed. It was like she had been suspecting. Sasuke hadn't even worked through his grief. He was just staying in his compound, using only his own house and letting everything else rot, unable to force himself to touch it.

Narumi kept her cup on a table and walked over to sit beside Sasuke, rubbing his back like she had been doing Naruto's.

"You might not feel like it's time, but you need to work through your grief, Sasuke. Dead people don't come back." Sasuke's shuddered. "You can call in Naruto, Sakura, Aime. Any of your classmates. Even me. We'll help you when you're ready to deal with your grief. But none of us want you to stay in a place that belongs more to the dead than the living." Sasuke gripped her other arm tightly. His fingers pressing harder, like he wanted her to feel her grief.

She tucked his head under her chin, while he bruised her arm, and cried empty tears of anger and regret.


	6. Chapter 6

When all of her kids, managed to finish the leaf sticking exercise, she taught them chakra enhancement. Then she brought them over in front of a metal sheet stuck to a tree. It looked quite odd, but she assured them that it was a challenge.

If they managed their chakra enhancement right, they could bend the metal!

Her kids raised an eyebrow at her.

She mentally pouted at them turning her own expression against her.

Then, she described the properties of the deceptive metal in front of them and they looked at it with awe.

Konoha wasn't known for it's metal but for its gemstones. It made the Land of Fire quite a rich country so they could bring in different kinds of metals from all over the land. Konoha was a trading hub as it was a central location. It also meant that wars would almost always involve them, but it had more pros than cons.

Sakura did manage a small dent and so did Aime after a quick whispering exchange with Sakura. Her tips slowly made rounds after a while and she watched how her kids grew more and more independent of her when before they could barely even stand on their own two feet. Now they walked and ran, together and separate. Forming groups and mixing.

Arguing but rarely anything serious that a little more talking couldn't resolve. Communication was the key to every relationship, and she had given them tips to write their future mission reports better, in addition to ones given by Iruka. Iruka wasn't exactly much of a field shinobi, but he always imparted as much of his knowledge as he could, to the next generation, so they learnt to survive.

She was an unforeseen active shinobi assignment in the Academy for a whole year. Generally, most active shinobi were chosen for their specializations and they taught some of it to the last few years for less than a month. Some, like the medics, sealing and crypo department had opened extra-classes for interested students. Iruka had told her than many more than expected have been trying out these extra classes.

She even had most of the boys sitting in on the kunoichi class. Ino had been complaining that the lady didn't teach them much, but it wasn't that she didn't teach them much, but more like Ino already knew everything. She had gone to the supervisor then the Hokage to stop wasting her student's time with things they knew, so Ino and a few of the other girls tested out of the course.

The boys, on the other hand, struggled. Sasuke also graduated within a few months, and became the envy of everyone else.

Then, the girls who graduated planned a study session after classes for the kunoichi class. The boys and the rest of the girls passed out within a month with a minimum score. Naruto barely scraped by on a technicality. Everyone just sighed in relief.

But those sessions didn't stop. They just agreed and met up some evenings to discuss classes, or complain (Ino), or make more plans (Shikamaru and Sakura) or even just lay about listening (Naruto and Kazuki). Some didn't even turn up every time (Sasuke), but no one actually scolded him for it. It was an open meet without any teachers or anything. It created a stronger group bonding, and she approved enough to stop any interruptions to that time.

Her class was so diverse, and yet, they meshed so well. They made adjustments for each other, compromised and when an argument erupted, they apologized. They took their bonds seriously. She had seen someone intervene between a few almost-fights quite a few times in the beginning. Sometimes it was Naruto keeping peace and creating understanding, sometimes it was Ino glaring them down until they made up then complaining about the hassle, sometimes it was even Sasuke who took them by the collars and banged their heads together.

(When Shikamaru first asked why he did that, Sasuke shrugged and said it seemed to have worked for him and Naruto, why not them? Narumi tried so hard to stifle her laughter so she wouldn't give herself away, she almost gave herself an aneurysm.)

But sadly, like all good things, her classes would soon come to an end.

She taught them for months, she told them about chunin, special jonin, jonin. She told them about how important each division was to maintain the life of the Village as it was, trying hard to make nothing sound too important. She told them to ask her for any letter of recommendations they wanted, and she tried her best to prepare her kids.

The days seemed to pass by faster, and near the end, she might have pushed her kids a little harder than she would have liked, but she wanted them to be strong, and stay _alive._ Iruka shared her sentiments and even he seemed to try to throw in as much information as he could at them. The kids must have had a hard time, but surprisingly, no one complained.

(She wouldn't know that they viewed her as a 'the more pressure you're under, the more I like you' person, so they accepted the burdens with a smile because they all liked their sensei.)

Then, he told her than the Hokage had called him in about the shifted class rankings and team management. She readied herself for an argument and made her way to the Hokage Tower beside an equally determined Iruka.

The Hokage might or might not have been surprised to see her, no one could tell, but since _she_ wasn't the one called, she stood behind Iruka while he gave the Hokage their newest class rankings. It was a little skewered, so while Sasuke was still the top shinobi, Sakura wasn't the sole top kunoichi, and Naruto definitely wasn't in the bottom. His physical marks were too high for that.

Then, it was her turn, she laid out the teams that had formed under pressure, and the teams that had managed to survive, the skewering of the traditional three man teams and the way duos had been predominant. The Hokage could throw in any number of duos together and they would manage to work together, but if they took out one person out of the duo, the readjustment period would be hectic on her students.

She told him about their chosen fields and for some, he seemed approving but some he was projecting some serious disapproving aura. But he didn't say a word throughout her explanation.

In the end though, she didn't give him much of a choice. He had given her free reign with strict rules, all of which she had followed. She had not shown them any ninjutsu, she had not taught them anything outside of the curriculum, she hadn't talked about Naruto's background, she had helped to make sure they survived and she was damn sure about Sasuke not being a flight risk.

But she had also made the whole class into a cohesive group, that, if given the chance, could take down a few jonins and quite a few chunins. She had built them into people who could take front line fighting like herself, she had made their bodies into weapons, and opened up another field for them to peruse for their pleasure.

If she wasn't teaching these kids for a year, and growing side by side beside them, then she definitely would have been taken out in their last all out attack. She had been wary of them since she got out her weapons but she had a suspicion that they were getting ready for something big. And she had been right.

Sasuke had the whole Uchiha library open to himself, and in the meantime, apparently, he had taken her advice to heart. He had invited his class to the compound and Ino had instantly taken change. She had organised groups, delegated the decision making items to a side room and gone after the house. Then the whole compound when she realized the utter ruin. She had taken to randomly switching between complaining and scolding Sasuke about letting his land fall into ruin, talking about adopting new members, or welcoming new people into it.

Ino was an heiress and it showed in the way she lectured Sasuke for days about how to manage a clan-less clan, how to integrate more members, how to make it official. She had found a niche in Sasuke's father's office with many clan documents that she had handed to Sasuke to read through. While he was busy, she and Sakura decided that 'no. Sasuke needed a change'.

It became a thing right about then.

The clan members got a little help from their own clans, the civilians cleaned up, tore up ruined buildings and did a lot of the heavy lifting. Sasuke was too busy with everything everyone was bringing up to notice more than 'something is going on'.

They tore up any area that had even a speck of blood remaining and re-painted the whole house. They were careful with personal belongings but they had to throw out many many personal belongings because it would just cause Sasuke to become sad. They left weapons, any belongings they thought he could use and very very carefully, set all his family items aside.

Sasuke barely had time to notice any of the changed before he was dragged away for a class photograph. It ended up framed on his wall.

Then, they left.

A few days later, Sasuke announced that Aime was officially adopted into his clan and Naruto was a honorary member. It was a little hectic then and she had helped unruffle a few feathers. But then, Sasuke had given them access to the library and taught them ninjutsu.

She had been so astonished to see them use ninjutsu that she had almost let them burn her face off.

She had instinctively used shunshin, grateful her reflexes with ninjutsu hadn't dulled much. Her taijutsu was probably off the charts, but she wasn't dealing with all her kids throwing ninjutsu at her without using any of her own. So while she hadn't used them offensively, she had definitely used them quite a few times.

Once, a fire ninjutsu went out of control so she had to douse him with water, but that was literally, _one_ time.

Oh, and Sasuke had won her bed about guessing her elemental inclination. He hadn't called it in, but she was expecting him to do so after he became genin. He was good at keeping some cards close to his chest, no matter that sometimes he seemed quite an open boy.

So, she was proud of her kids and Hokage or not, she wasn't going to allow him to separate them just because they didn't fit in his box. He wanted them to survive? She guaranteed it.

The Hokage brought out his pipe and smoked. Turning around the face the Hokage Mountain.

"I wasn't expecting such a strong and united resistance against separating them from both of you. But I suppose I should have since Sasuke submitted the paperwork to make a classmate a branch member and Naruto into an honorary one, considering he already belonged to a lost clan." There was a pause. Smoke filled out. "Very well then. I will arrange teams into four-man teams, aside from the three you have already mentioned."

The three- Ino-Shika-Cho, childhood friends so they were unlikely to accept anyone else from the beginning; Hinata-Kiba-Shino, who to her surprise had actually lasted; and the three friends from her comedic five.

They grinned at each other before bowing thankfully in front of the Hokage and left.

(The Hokage thought back to his youth when Tobirama-sensei had a soft heart and hard demands, so like young Narumi. He couldn't bear to leave any of the students begging for his attention so he decided to take one more, then one more until they were six. He wondered if Narumi would have the same end as his own sensei.)


	7. Chapter 7

"Sensei, I need that favor."

It was a week before graduation. She internally clicked her tongue. Looks like she got it off by a week.

"What would you like me to do?" She asked, because calling it in after graduation, she understood because she wasn't forced to teach them everything she knew and everything they asked for. But before graduation? She wondered if there was something she had not told them about yet, that Sasuke would need. Well, there were many, but most she just wasn't allowed to teach him

"I need you to teach Naruto a clone technique." Her thoughts ground to a halt.

"Wait, what?" Sasuke looked at her a little impatiently. Naruto standing a little behind, messing with the edge of his shirt.

"Naruto still can't do the bunshin. He needs another one. He keeps overloaded it with chakra." She bit her lip, while she had been thinking about something, she couldn't give it to him before graduation.

"I can't teach a ninjutsu, Sasuke." His forehead creased.

"But it's a clone." He looked frustrated enough to stamp his feet. Narumi sighed.

"I was hoping you would be able to do it before graduation, but I guess that precise chakra control is still too hard." She combed a hand through her hair. "Okay, stay back after classes get over and I'll try my best to help you get it down." Sasuke clicked his tongue. She shot him a look and he calmed down.

"Fine, sensei." She shook her head at them as they walked away. These kids had hounded her for her birthday for the last month and after finding out, they had started to treat her far more casually. Just because she wasn't even a decade older than them, she wasn't even given as much respect. Though, in their defense, chakra did make age kind of a negotiable thing.

The Uzumaki clan, for example, were known to have such dense chakra that they seemed to age slower. They were called the Village of Longevity as well. She wondered if Naruto would look twenty when he was forty. That would be quite ridiculous, wouldn't it? Even the Uchiha and the Akimichi clan were known for their dense chakra. The Hatake clan might have had it too, but information about the smaller clans were generally less well known or more well hidded.

She suspected the latter with them. The Hatake clan gave birth to many a genii. Not just any, world famous ones. Sakumo was one of the best frontline fighters. He was well known as 'The White Fang' or even 'The Samurai'. Loyalty etched to the core.

Kakashi, on the other hand, was hidden and obscure, unlike Sakumo. He was one of the most infamous assassins ever though. He had his own mark. Sometimes they mixed it up, but the unique white chakra in Kakashi was heavy in the air around him. Unlike Sakumo, who was blessed with a lot of chakra, Kakashi had less but the density made it a weapon on it's own. She wondered sometimes, if he used his killing intent on her, would she just die instantly? Or would she feel like she was drowning in the depth of the sea?

Killing intent was generally sharp, like a stabbing knife, but something told her Kakashi's wouldn't be anywhere near as subtle. Maybe more silent though, but not subtle.

She had seen Kakashi a few times, but she had barely ever talked to him. With titles like ' _Friend-killer'_ hanging around, people didn't associate with him much, but everyone respected the man. The regular jonin were more casual around him because of his childhood friend, Gai. But he rarely visited bars, rarely socialized. He was a legend that still lived and haunted the living, it seemed like.

It was funny when some chunin would call him a 'ghost' and turn pale the moment he entered the establishment. If nothing else, the man had balls to be so blatant all the time. A lot of higher ups favored him including many jonins, the Anbu Commander, his own team- all of who went on to make a name for themselves outside of Anbu- the Hokage. The only living student of the Forth Hokage. He had many legacies to carry on; not that it seemed like he would, what with him being the longest term Anbu member to ever live.

Even the Hokage must have been nervous about Kakashi's chances. She had heard he was kicked out, though he did wander back a time or two that no one informed the Hokage about.

She wondered about the list of names the Hokage had sent to her. The future jonin sensei for her students and their own requests to the Hokage.

When Iruka took classes, she had looked through them. Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura and Aime would be going to Kakashi. He was a good trainer, from what she heard, but genins were different from Anbu members. They hadn't totally come into their skills yet. But she was confident no matter what Kakashi put them through, her kids would survive.

Her three teams of three were specially requested and while she wasn't happy with a new jonin being a teacher, she hadn't argued much. Kiba and Hinata would keep their own team on their toes, if nothing else. She was curious about how the jonin would fare against her kids too. She hadn't been watching her kids train unlike most of the other jonin excluding Hatake, of course. He never was at the social scene, no matter what it was.

There were a few Anbu who retired for her kids. She had smirked when she saw that. Those had been watching since the beginning. She selected appropriate teams for specializations and set them aside for the Hokage. She would deliver them after classes.

That night, Naruto stood in front of her trustingly, and formed his clone.

Sasuke was right. It was grotesque. The physical features were not there and but it was all in the shape of Naruto with a blankness that was actually a little creepy. She wondered if Sasuke or Sakura could use it.

She spend an hour teaching him chakra control tips while Sasuke completed his regime at a side, but while the clones managed to get better, Naruto just couldn't manage the preciseness required for it.

He overloaded the clone in frustration and it burst like a balloon, throwing Naruto- who was the closest- on his back violently. He wasn't injured, just irritated. Then they spent time just staring at the stars, after a while, Sasuke joined them and collapsed with sweat dripping off him.

Some time later, Naruto stood up again. She sighed, back to basics then.

Then she told him to think about his own face, his body and make the clones again. Then using that amount of chakra to spread out over as many clones as he could.

He stuck his tongue out, his face scrunched up and she had to hit Sasuke to stop him from laughing.

It was more successful. Though, some clones received too much and too little. But it was better. Probably because it was similar to the concept he had already learnt. She picked up the clone with the perfect amount and tried to get Naruto to even out the amount of chakra over multiple clones.

That part actually came more naturally to him. He wasn't as focused on his own chakra control, so the clones came out looking pretty damn close. Then, after barely half an hour of practice, he had it down.

He had to make about a hundred clones at a minimum, but it was good enough for someone who couldn't even make a single clone for almost a whole year.

Naruto screamed loud enough to wake up the whole neighborhood- not that there were many people there- and jumped on her. She hugged him back, happy at his success.

She winked at Sasuke from behind his back and he looked away, a little shyly.

She laughed.

-x-

Kakashi wasn't surprised often, but when he came back to hear that he might like to take a look at the Academy, he was surprised and suspicious. There was a new chunin teaching Naruto's class. She was young, about twenty, he guessed, she was familiar so she was probably an Anbu- he hadn't had much outside contact outside of Anbu other than Gai and a few of his ex-teammates- but her teaching style was very familiar.

He remembered the newest training for the new recruits in Anbu. She had been good, adjusting training minutely for everyone. She had an older training guiding her for a few months but she had surpassed them, to everyone's surprise.

Kakashi remembered his own initial training in Anbu. It had been harsh and grueling, and it had turned him into one of the foremost stealth experts and his ambushing tactics had taken many people by surprise.

She had taught the kids an odd mix-up of genin and Anbu training. It had been odd watching a young woman hit a man thrice her size with a scroll, but it was just funny to watch her do the same to do the same to children half her size with the exact same posture.

_Donkey must be_ _embarrassed watching this_ , he thought. He was the one who used to relentlessly flirt with the woman and therefore got hit the most.

He was surprised to see that she was chunin though. She had been a good fighter, from what he remembered, probably should have ended up special jonin by now. He had a stray thought about how if she had been there during the war, she would probably have ended up jonin and lost to the front lines as well.

He wandered away soon after, losing interest. He wandered back to Anbu headquarters, wiped the floor with the blood of a few other people, the Anbu Commander gave him an amused glance that he ignored and he wandered back out, trained, ate something, then went back to training until Gai interrupted him later talking about how amazing his own students were doing and when was he getting his own kids.

He dropped Bull on Gai, and ran away. Gai, of course, took it as a challenge and Bull was left to train with Gai, who carried him around, trying to catch Kakashi again. Bull went back to sleep, used to unusual circumstances around his Summoner.

Kakashi ducked back into Anbu HQ.

Gai internally cried tears of joy with the trust Kakashi had put in him, leaving one of his pack alone with Gai.

Bull dozed.

-x-

Narumi sat in her own home, looking at the papers in front of her suspiciously. She read it once more and frowned.

_What was the Hokage doing?_

In front of her, papers announced her newest rank, along with her newest mission.

She fisted her hand and cursed the man.

"Damn it. Damn it. Damn that old geezer."

Generally, she didn't make a habit of saying what she thought of her Hokage, but she thought this time it was warranted.

She slumped in her seat.

"Damn it."

Her kids were going to be assigned teams _without_ her there.

She would be cut off from most of the Village News. She wouldn't be there to see how it turned out.

"That goddamned Hokage."

She burnt the edge of it with a match and edged it on with chakra. The chakra fire would destroy all of it, even without her attention. She watched with satisfaction while the whole thing burnt down, including the last bit.

_-departure at the North Gate- Station 107 at 0600._

Fuck Anbu, and _fuck_ the Hokage.

-x-

Kakashi was standing sedately in front of the Memorial Stone, staring at the stone, lost in thought when he felt someone walk across his extremely subtle wards that he had erected about the same time as he started talking to the Memorial Stone. Can't have someone listening in, after all.

He turned around, watching the dark haired chunin walk straight up to him fearlessly. Her eyes were filled with frustration, and if he was anyone but an elite jonin, he would have been convinced she had come to hit him, but since he was, he knew from her posture and her eyes and it wasn't so. She was frustrated but she wasn't thinking about picking a fight with him.

To his surprise, soon after he had received that terrible name of ' _friend-killer_ ' among his comrades, there had been some people who picked a fight with him, hoping he would kill them. He had subdued them and put them on suicide watch. It had been...displeasing- it reminded him about the scent of cold floorboards, empty rooms, cold blood and a cooled body- and he had made sure they weren't dispatched unless they were off suicide watch.

People had stopped coming to him soon after.

This woman was nothing like that. She was probably more like Kushina here, angry but not genuinely threatening. She walked up to him and-

-pulled him down.

He raised an eyebrow at her harsh handling. Her eyes were a little blood-shot- crying? he thought bewildered- and she hissed out her words.

"Don't you dare let my kids die. I swear on my mother's grave, I will find a way to make you so miserable you will live thinking you should have died, if you let even one of those four die." She took a breath and he realized what she was doing. And her threat... he would have laughed if he could in the face of this woman's misery. He was _already_ living wishing he could have died. She let go of his flak jacket. He pulled away from the hunch she had forced on him.

"And-" her eyes narrowed, "don't you dare deny the girls."

He didn't react. That was a legitimate issue as kunoichi were still looked down as lower, but 'deny'?

" _If_ I take them as my students, I will do what is necessary for them. Even 'deny' them." She scowled at him, looking calmer.

"I meant to not deny them other teachers. They all have some overlap with your specialty but if they feel you can't teach them what they need, they'll look for someone else themselves." Here she scowled again, but not at him. He silently added one more surprising thing he learnt.

"That would just mean they don't have patience to hone themselves by themselves." She shook her head then sighed.

"Well, patience is always a problem with kids," she shrugged, "but that doesn't mean they don't have their basics." She poked him. He wondered if this was what being flustered felt like. "You know enough about teaching so iron out the kinks and give them more real life experience." He wondered if he needed to take notes, he hadn't exactly taught many people aside from giving random tips, while she was a professional trainer, "Just get them out of the Village, as much as you can, and try to show them the reality of the world." She ordered him.

He felt like he should be nodding and saluting like an Anbu novice, for the first time in more than a decade.

She hesitated and looked up at him surprised. He looked down at her curiously, but the corners of her lips upturned a little in an amused quirk before she shook her head. He wondered if he missed anything.

"You haven't seen your students, right?" She asked, the frustration almost gone from her. He belatedly realized he was pulling an Anbu in front of her before just shrugging it, because it wasn't as big a deal anyway.

"I've heard about them," he said vaguely. He hadn't heard who he received aside from the Uchiha, given by the Hokage, and Naruto, his request, so it was surprising to learn that had not three, but _four_ kids. Was the Hokage trying to kill him?

He probably should have pulled out one of his books and waved it around a bit more casually. Next time, he promised himself.

She smirked, wickedly. He wished he had the book now, then was glad his face was 90% covered already.

"Have fun with those kids~" She said and walked away with a wave.

She left wondering that the infamous Hatake Kakashi seemed more socially awkward and easy-going than she had thought.

He was left wondering what kind of kids she had.

-x-

When he had heard that her kids were good, he didn't realize how interested everyone would be.

The Hokage office was crowded.

The jonin sensei selection was generally an interesting event, but not once had there been this thrum of tension in the air. Even during chunin exams. Everyone, even the hiding Anbu- four more than required- were letting out this excited air.

The Hokage was calmly looking at everyone of his jonin vibrating in their seats like excited kids ready to head home after school. Kakashi wondered what was up with this excitement.

He allowed everyone to view the classroom of the newest batch.

To everyone's surprise, the kids were practically slumped in their seats, seemingly unwilling to even listen to their teacher. Some were scowling and talking angrily among themselves. Naruto was pouting so hard, he was surprised the kid hadn't started crying already. He looked sad enough to.

On the other hand, the Uchiha was scowling like he wanted to murder a few people, sitting beside Naruto listening to him whine, but he didn't say anything other than the occasional nod. A few clan and civilian kids were grouped together, sitting in a tight cycle while the teacher sighed with a smile at them.

They were furtively discussing something, writing a few things on the piece of paper then cutting them when the- apparantly- lazy Nara said something.

"Oi Naruto, Sasuke. We need you here!" A civilian boy called out to the two sitting farthest away from everyone. Sasuke got up, and tugged at Naruto until he got up with a sigh, avoiding a few slumped over kids.

"What?" Sasuke asked, and Naruto shoved someone and sat down, looking at everyone with his soulful eyes. A girl looked at Naruto and smirked.

"Sensei was right. He'll do!" She claimed, pointing at Naruto. Sasuke frowned, confused. Naruto practically had question marks around his head. The Nara looked at him and smirked. A few jonins shivered remembering the Jonin Commander with the same smirk when they were going to be put through the wringer.

"Sensei is always right," Sasuke huffed out, to the surprise of almost every jonin, who remembered the infamous Uchiha pride. The Hyuuga girl spoke up, "We're gonna make Naruto the Hokage."

"HAAAAHHHHH?!" Sasuke exclaimed. Even Naruto stood up in surprise. Everyone else nodded calmly.

A few jonin snorted. Kakashi wondered what the woman had been feeding her kids that insanity like that was spouting from an Academy student.

"DOWN!" Iruka shouted at Sasuke. He ducked instinctively before looking at Iruka with irritation. "Keep your volume down, I'm letting you talk it out now, so at least son't be so loud." Sasuke rolled his eyes at him. A girl hit the back of his head.

"Sakura!" He hissed at her, but found another seat and sat down. Then he rubbed his forehead.

"What are you even planning?" He looked at the Nara. He smirked back.

"We're going to be heads of our own clans after a few years, so we can make sure someone we trust- aka Naruto- becomes Hokage." He said calmly. Sasuke sighed.

"You do realize sensei is going to come back, right? She's just out on a mission."

"Yes, but she's gone instead of wishing us well, giving us a million tips and telling us to break a few jonin legs!" The Hyuuga answered furiously. Her fists were clenched together and Sasuke silently wondered if she even realized what she was saying. Wasn't her clan having succession problems with her?

"Or arms," another girl spoke with an amused smirk. Sasuke sighed, feeling his headache increasing, wishing his sensei was here. On second thought, maybe not. She would encourage this course of thinking while breaking _their_ legs.

"Even you, Aime?" She shrugged.

"Sakura insisted." He sighed, bowing his head under the pressure from his classmates' expectant looks. If he also had a smirk hidden by his arms, no one could tell.

"Well, I guess, we'll have to do it then."

The Hokage Tower was silent, before Genma, who wasn't even a full jonin- what was he even doing there?- burst out into loud laughter.

"Did these kids just decide on a revolution because their sensei was missing?" Another jonin murmured, confused.

Another snorted in response before half of them were laughing at the absurdity, though they kept the logic in their mind too. These _were_ future clan heads, if they had the will to continue on, they absolutely could make it come true.

Inside the classroom, Naruto was looking at his classmates with teary eyes.

"You guys..." Sasuke looked at him before snorting.

"Don't get a big head. We'll putting you up because sensei trusted your dream. If you really can't do it, one of us can pick up the slack." He smirked, "after all, I don't exactly have a clan to take care of, do I?" Shikamaru snorted, ignoring the heavy part of the statement.

"That's true, Naruto."

"Uh-huh." Sakura agreed.

"Sorry, Naruto." The Hyuuga said a little more quietly, with a small mischievous smile. Everyone else also pitched in with amused smiles.

"YOU GUYS!" He screamed, annoyed with his friends. But still happy with their support.

Iruka coughed.

"Are you all done NOW?" He glared at everyone. Everyone sat down, their future plan discussed.

"So as I was saying, since Narumi-sensei isn't here, only I will be giving away your team announcements."

"Team 3: Kazuki Urame, Amane Satso, Ai Kitsu and Aluka Kitsu under Shirome Namure."

Team 4, then 5, then 6 had the civilian kids all done. They were generally expected to fail, but there had been many offers for them, so much so that Iruka was still having a hard time remembering who Narumi had declared would be their sensei.

To Kakashi's surprise, when a jonin got a new team of civilians, they grinned and taunted their friends. To his knowledge, most of the civilian kids weren't generally paid attention to. Did he get transported to an alternate reality or something?

He received Team 7 with Naruto and Sasuke, as expected and two girls Narumi-san had warned him about, Sakura and Aime. To his surprise, both had senbon somewhere or the other. He looked at Genma to see him look back with a smirk. He winked at him teasingly.

Wasn't it...against the Hokage's orders to get trained by another shinobi when they weren't one themselves? Even sponsors didn't actually teach their selected Academy kids.

The infamous Ino-Shika-Cho went to Asuma, one of the recently ex-Guardians and the Hokage's son. He seemed quite curious about the Nara kid who wasn't being as lazy as most generally were. He wondered what happened.

The tracker team went to a new jonin who was looking at the Hyuuga with surprised but pleased eyes. He wondered if their sensei had really _wanted_ to hand her kids off to someone so new and inexperienced. He doubted the answer would be a 'yes' from what little he knew about her.

Then the sensei closed up his file and straightened up.

"I'm not going to give the normal speech I give, because Narumi-sensei will probably chew me out if I do. So instead, I will tell you the message she gave me."

The children focused on the teacher with an intensity that surprised him. They weren't that focused during _any_ of his classes. He had to admit to being a little envious of the ease she had when gaining their attention. Just her name could bring these kids to heel. They never wanted to disappoint their sensei who put their all in them. Specially those orphans she had claimed as hers, as possessively as a mother dragon.

He laughed to himself as the image, not surprised by how it felt appropriate.

"Ambush," he grinned.

The children let out bloodthirsty grins in response. Naruto gave him a cheerful thumbs up.

The jonins seemed a little confused by that, and surprised too.

Kakashi wondered again what that woman had been feeding her kids.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally the jonin-sensei meet their badass students!!!


	8. Chapter 8

Okay.

So when he heard the word "ambush" maybe he hadn't fully realized what it meant.

Kakashi swept his eye over the trees and wondered how the other jonin were faring.

Sakura came out from his left, which was his most commonly mistaken blind spot, but he had already trained himself out of using sight as his sole sense years ago. He blocked it with a kunai and she kawarimi'd, threw three, no, four senbon at him. He used the same jutsu, ending up among the trees- which incidentally wasn't a good spot for the kids, somehow they hid better on flat ground than among the trees- and watched the senbon make holes through the wood.

He was already impressed and ready to take in these kids in the first ten seconds into the ambush, but damn, these kids were pulling out every trick to try to push him into a corner.

When he had heard the sensei's message to the students, he had been a little wary but when he had been ambushed on the way to the Memorial Stone, he had actually been a little irritated, after all, no one in the last decade had the guts to interrupt his not-so-secret vice, then surprised, then he had gone from that to amused which was his present state.

There had barely been any warning, suddenly senbon had been hurled at him with surprising speed and since then, these kids had continued to surprise him.

These kids were _good._

It was obvious, they were used to guerrilla warfare tactics. But their best was their adapting skills. He threw in anything new- genjutsu, ninjutsu, smoke bombs, they reversed it or learnt it or something and tried their best to turn it against them.

When she had said 'your speciality overlap with theirs' he thought assassination, but now he was thinking, he might have misunderstood her.

Sasuke and Naruto had approached him, together and in sync. He had battled against _twins_ , that were less in sync. They responded to each other shifts and movements instinctively. They covered each other's backs, and when Sakura and Aime were added...

Yeah, he could see why a chunin- not really one though, because there was a promotion waiting for her to finish her last chunin task- went up against an elite jonin for these kids.

He willingly drove himself into the corner, wondering what else they were going to pull, because he hadn't seen Sasuke and Naruto in the last half minute and he was thinking it was going to be bad news for him. He was right.

The ground burst with _clones._

Specifically, Naruto's shadow clones. He cursed Naruto's teacher under his breath- her fingerprints were all over this move- and tried to shunshin, he met with chakra wire forming a net around him, trapping him. He ducked and weaved through clones using Earth style to leave the death trap before the wires accidentally took someone's head off.

He was immediately met with sword- wasn't that not in the regulations to be taught in the Academy? what was she teaching these kids?- he ducked, almost got punched by Naruto- or was it one of his clones- a kunai went through the clone letting out a puff of smoke- sloppy, their kawarimi was much better, new technique then?- Sasuke almost accidentally took off Sakura's head off which he had to interfere to avoid- Sasuke didn't know how to wield a sword that well, his basics were sloppy, self-taught? definitely not field tested in those mini-battles he had heard about, he would have heard that scolding from half a village away- Aime threw senbon at his center of mass and he kawarimi'd to her.

She snarled, her chakra sharpening and he smelled something familiar, he swung away from tree, avoiding Sasuke's fire jutsu, Aime dropped down before it even came close to her. Her body control was good, her tensing of muscles didn't give her away. Much.

Naruto spotted him, his fingers went through Wind style seals and he blew, fire chakra with wind chakra? The forest would burn down. He retaliated with water, almost getting gutted when Sakura came from below trying to use his distraction with stopping a wildfire.

He let her scratch his flak jacket, before he knocked her out. He spotted Aime running for her while Naruto and Sasuke came after him with a vengeance. His eyes narrowed with satisfaction. They had good tactics and team formation already.

Aime's hands glowed with medical ninjutsu and he wondered if he should check if she was qualified enough to heal, but no, she was just running a diagnostic jutsu and not even trying to heal the concussion Sakura probably had.

Aime took a quick glance of her surroundings and weaved a justu, an Earth wall blocked his view of them. He silently sent out a clone to observe them. Sasuke had ditched his sword already- only good for surprise tactics but not regular fighting- and Naruto was spamming clones to keep him away. They didn't notice his clone.

They would need some polishing, but they were built as quite an impressive team. Their roles were clear and matched well with their builds. Suddenly, he was curious about the other students in the class too. Would they all be as impressive?

When they were getting tired, he knocked them out and dropped them beside Aime who was carefully trying to wake Sakura up. She was wiping her sweat when he dropped the two boys beside her. He knew better than to distract a working medic, specially a newbie. Sakura might end up with an extra arm or something equally odd. Actually that would be quite useful as well, now that he thought about it.

Sakura blinked lightly, not totally conscious yet.

"Tomorrow, Team Meet at 6 am in Training Ground 7." He informed the lone conscious team member and disappeared. He watched the way she did diagnostic justu on both her teammates before silently dragging up Sakura on her shoulders. With the spar over and her chakra reserve getting low, she decided to go to the hospital. He approved. The next generation was smarter than the last at least.

He dropped a clone which picked up Naruto and Sasuke under one arm, and Sakura in the other. Aime looked at him with surprise before smiling warmly at him. He walked towards the hospital- thankfully, he was a clone so he could just disappear but the medics were going to have a heart attack when he voluntarily walked into the hospital. He could tell this was going to happen more often. Sasuke and Naruto weren't going to be stopped even by their own lack of stamina, it seemed like.

He briefly regretted knocking Sakura out to check team dynamics. He wanted to see what her response would have been. He could also test how Sasuke and Naruto did independently. He doubted that teacher of theirs hadn't already made sure their basics were up to date, but he needed to make sure there wasn't any unconscious gestures that she might have overlooked due to her familiarity with the two.

He dropped the three at the hands of a wide-eyed medic who was staring at him with shock clearly visible on her face, then before she could get her hands on him, he waved at Aime and disappeared, not even a puff of smoke remaining from his clone.

* * *

_'Ambush'_ their teacher had said, and Ino, Shikamaru and Choji followed.

They teacher met them soon after but after introductions, he had told them to start the team test the next day. Ino had flipped her hair and shrugged. Choji had been chewing meat and hadn't even replied. Their chosen sensei sighed and left them alone.

They spared each other a glance before walking in three different directions.

Choji wasn't good at being subtle, so he just went to his clan and got information about his sensei. Shikamaru and Ino had already done this quite a few times before so they mentally communicated while Ino subtly probed and bribed information from chunins and jonins cheekily. Shikamaru and Ino exchanged information before going to a few popular places, quite a few jonins actually recognized them so they got more free information there.

Then, in the light of the dimming sun, the three met up and found Sarutobi Asuma smoking leisurely outside a restaurant.

Ino mind transferred and walked him away from the civilians and more towards the training ground. Curious, Asuma let them do as they wished. Ino let go when they went far enough, coming back to her own body, breathing heavily.

He smirked at them, and waited.

Choji hammered at him with enlarged fists, Shikamaru blended with the shadows and Ino ran low, throwing kunai accurately even as she breathed hard. Her eyes focused on the mind she had just been. She snarled when he replaced with a clone.

"Tree!" She called out and Shikamaru wrapped his shadows around his sensei. Asuma struggled to move, gave an impressed look before boring into them with his chakra. Chjoji smashed the tree in response.

"Now, now. What are three little genins trying to do?" He grinned at them, interest shining in his eyes. Shikamaru narrowed his eyes, shadows extended further driving him towards Choji while he weighed the choices. He gave Ino a signal and she grinned a vicious mean grin.

"Oh, sensei~" she sang. Her fingers folding into a familiar sign and Asuma, recognizing the threat jumped away. Ino narrowed her eyes, her mind connecting to his. She smirked.

Then.

She screamed.

Not physically, of course. But mentally.

Shikamaru winced, but used to it and not directly connected, he managed to ignore it. Asuma stumbled, his instincts overriding his brain while he was in pain and shock under an attack he had never expected. He jumped farther away from Choji, trying to find a safe place.

Ino sighed in relief that he hadn't gone for killing them. That had been a genuine worry for them, but the intel they got made Shikamaru give the go-ahead. Asuma was controlled, even out of his mind, he knew where he was.

Unseen from all, Shikamaru weaved a sign.

"Kai," he whispered under his breath.

The area burst into flames under Asuma's feet.

* * *

Kuranai Yuhi.

Hinata relayed all she knew about the chunin who had met her once before. She used to teach clan children and was subtle about it, so her father had chosen the chunin for Hinata. Of course, it hadn't ended up working. Instead, Kurenai had developed a soft spot for Hinata.

Hinata told her team everything that they could use and they grinned at each other.

Everyone knew Sasuke and Naruto were two of the favorites. Everyone knew that that team was going to be destruction incarnate, but. They had to prove that they had learnt a lot from their sensei as well.

They all had their clan techniques they had been using while learning from their sensei. It was twice as hard for them. But they had pulled through.

Now, they just had to show it to their jonin sensei.

Hinata had her Byakugan on when Kurenai first came. She had raised an eyebrow but ignored it.

Midway through their introduction, Kurenai was gone, replaced by a genjutsu. Hinata noticed it immediately, impressing her.

She got them to the field and-

_illusions_

It was insensible. Layers upon layers formed between seconds, so many they would have a hard time detecting even the number of them.

They didn't have time to go through every single one. So.

They blocked off their senses.

Kiba closed his eyes, ripping his shirt to tie it around his eyes. Shino spread out his kikaichu around the area, and Hinata shot off shortly followed by Kiba and Shino.

Kurenai added scent genjutsu but Kiba's senses were descending from the Inuzuka. No genjutsu could replicate scents as exactly as his nose. He ignored it like it wasn't even there.

Kurenai had hidden herself using genjutsu instead of ninjutsu and the students found her out quite easily. She smiled at them before taking them straight forward. They were already beyond any chunin level genjutsu.

Hinata settled into her gentle fist and let Kiba go in first.

He attacked her with his hands, legs, knees, twisting mid-air and even with his teeth once before Shino pulled him aside and a chakra blow from under her feet surprised her. Hinata's hands glowed with chakra and she drove it into the earth, cracking it. Kurenai's eyes widened before she jumped away.

Shino was on her like a wave, her taijutsu absolutely useless against all three. She envied them a little, wishing she had had such a dedicated teacher when she was young, before Kiba dove for her, snarling. She dissipated like smoke.

Shino found her this time, but unlike before, Kurenai didn't try taijustu. She let out hallucinogens, chemicals dissipating into the wind.

Akamaru howled and her eyes darkened. She went after them again.

Chakra cycled through their pathways and Hinata let out a crude version of her clan technique to block Kurenai. Kiba threw a pill at Akamaru and they came on two sides of Hinata, pressing on Kurenai. Shino appeared behind her, a wind justu blowing away the chemicals and Kurenai's overlapped a haunted genjutsu on them.

Then, she used ninjustu to hide her scent, hid her chakra and came after them with ninjutsu.

They struggled.

But against a jonin going half-serious against them, they lost.

Hinata dropping like dead weight when her chakra left her. Shino went after Kurenai with a vengeance at that. His kikaichu coming out like a haunted wreathe and inside that, Kurenai saw possibilities.

Kiba growled, low in his throat and came after her even stronger and faster.

So distracted was she, that she almost missed a genjutsu. Quite well done, that if she were any less good, she wouldn't have noticed it. She took it off, and got caught in the trap of wires the genjust had distracted her from. Kiba smirked before coming after her.

She shunshin'd before she got caught by another of Shino's insects. They were bad at letting go of people they latched on to.

For her, Shino was turning out to be the greatest threat and her chakra reserves were dropping rapidly. They had probably hoping for a stamina battle, making her use many jutsus. Kiba was already badly injured though, Hinata had been blocking most of her direct attacks- ninjutsu or otherwise.

She wondered if they had any other tricks up their sleeve.

Kiba threw in a smoke bomb. To her surprise, they were quite good at fighting blind.

She had seen some of their fights, but it had been as chaotic as an actual battle-field. She was in genuine awe of their sensei with the way she managed to get to her students when they were injured enough to get them out of the line of fire. But in none of them, had anyone used smoke bombs.

She was getting pushed back while fighting blind inside the smoke, she had to leave, but her chakra was draining quite fast.

She brought out her weapons.

She didn't need to be humiliated about losing a fight against genins, no matter how good.

She weaved undetectable traps, barely needing to layer genjutsu over them with Hinata out. Kiba caught in one and cursed out loud. Before Akamaru got him out, she needed to deal with Shino.

Shino was hard. He didn't easily fall for her traps, and she had to spend more chakra on him and it was a battle against her and chakra exhaustion while Shino used his insects to avoid her. She knocked Kiba out in the meantime while waiting for Shino.

He realized she wasn't going to waste chakra going after him, and there was another short fight.

She decimated him, before collapsing on the field beside an unconscious Shino wishing there was someone else who could carry all four of them to the hospital.

Because she sure as hell couldn't.


	9. Chapter 9

The Hokage looked at the jonin in front of him with surprise. He was old, with creaking bones and wrinkled face; but his authority was second to none in the Village. The jonin in front of him were about the age of his children, some younger still.

For all his wisdom and experience, he hadn't been expecting the result he had received. He couldn't have imagined the result in all his years of living, even in the beginning days of the Village; for how could young inexperienced children prove to be any sort of challenge to the people who he had in front of him?

In front of him stood elite jonin sensei, hand selected by him to pass on their skills to the younger generation who would soon form the foundation of their Village. The best state out of them was a man in his prime- an elite jonin with the strength of a Hokage to hold up a Village, but without enough mental fortitude to be the steady pillar that was required of their Hokage, Hatake Kakashi.

He had the smallest rip in the front of his flak jacket, and the scent of burnt wood clung to him, even with the bath he had to have taken. He would need a new flak jacket to replace his ripped one, but as the Hokage's gaze turned to his other jonin sensei candidates, many looked down in shame. There was one jonin missing. He was the only one taken by surprise so thoroughly that he would need to stay in the hospital for a day more. His other candidates were in much better shape.

Yuhi Kurenai, who had requested Team 8 had low chakra which was almost on the edge of chakra exhaustion, her normally open hair was tied up into a bun and she looked like she was still getting used to healing from chakra exhaustion. As a genjutsu specialist, she did not go into chakra exhaustion often, but it was understandable considering her team's strength was her weakness.

Sarutobi Asuma, his own son, has burnt parts of his lower body, along with his eyebrows. His hair was a little singed as well, but he was actually looking interested instead of thinking of his team as a vacation, which he took as a gift. The less said about other jonin, the better. Half of his other jonin looked like they were having a hard time standing still. The other half seemed to need a visit to the hospital.

Some had called for the team test to happen that very morning and they were still suffering from the after-effects.

The Hokage smoked his pipe and patted himself in the back for taking precaution and sending the woman off on a mission before she could, spend the week-long break between graduation and jonin-sensei's acceptance of the team, teaching all her students some jutsu or the other. They actually might have ended up sending more people to the hospital.

"So," he broke the silence after the prospective teachers had given their assessments of their own teams, "the teams have different specialties than expected?" His son stepped up.

"Yes, Hokage-sama. My team is an assassination squad." The other teams followed the announcement.

"Mm. Mine is a first response and rescue specialist," Kakashi said lazily, though his eyes were scanning the jonins instead of the Hokage.

"Combat squad," Kurenai spoke.

"Search and rescue," another said.

"Stealth and crowd control."

"Espionage."

"Trap and ambush."

When the last was added by another jonin in the placement of the jonin still in the hospital, the Hokage sighed.

Genin specializations were taught by their jonin sensei, but these kids were trained in such a way that they must have been forced to utilize their talent under the threat of death. These teams were put together by someone who had watched and dedicated a whole year of their life to these children.

He could never ask that of their jonin, who had many other responsibilities aside from teaching these children. He still had never expected her to teach and bring out their potential to the surface with such skill. Her skill wasn't just good for pre-trained Anbu, but also for Academy children who learnt their basics in a bone deep way. And yet, none of the children disliked their teacher. They still maintained much of their innocence that was unlikely during the days of the clan wars.

Narumi-sensei had ended up following through the wishes of the First Hokage better than the current Hokage- maintaining the innocent joy of childhood while still teaching them to survive.

_Perhaps if there was no war, Tobirama-sensei could have been the same way,_ he thought with regret.

He was now older than his sensei had been at the time of his death, and he wondered if it brought them more regret or peace to see the Hokage growing older day by day while younger shinobi went out to fight a battle that wasn't sought by any of them.

"Very well. If you feel that you cannot handle your team, feel free to leave. Your team will be assigned a different instructor."

And he waited. Feet shuffled, but there was no hint of the door opening. After two minutes had passed, he looked over all the instructors still standing. To his unending surprise and pride, not one of his shinobi left the room. They stood firm, their eyes shining with interest and challenge. Even Kakashi, who had seemed like he would rather take Naruto as his mentee, made no words of refusal.

His lips quirked up, and his eyes lightened. This generation truly would become something to see. He hoped he stayed alive long enough to see it.

* * *

Sakura woke up with a groan. She blinked a few times to clear it, before sitting up in the bed. There was the slight pain of not stretching after intense exercise, but it was easily over taken by the dull throbbing in her head. She pressed her fingers in the back of her head and like clockwork, a nurse entered her room.

"Oh! Sakura! You're awake!" She asked her a series of questions, then eased the pain, apologizing for not being able to do more. She wrung her fingers nervously. "I'm sorry but I was told to leave your injury to let it heal naturally." Sakura waved it off, already aware of normal procedures.

While Aime was the one learning to be a medic-nin, Sakura had picked up many things just from being by her side.

"Is Aime in rotation now?" She asked the nervous nurse. She nodded, a smile easing her nerves.

"Yes, I'll call for her. You'll need to avoid any shinobi activities for the next day, but then you'll be back to your old self!" Sakura smiled pleasantly at the nurse as she finished up and left the room. Sakura tried to peak at the other occupants of the room, and she was surprised to see a few other genins from her class. They didn't seem very injured, but just their presence told her how well their teams must have done. She smiled proudly, remembering her sensei's words before graduation.

_"...and you will find that most jonin are some of the most controlled people as a result. The higher the rank, the better their control over themselves. So a jonin would never 'accidentally' kill a genin or chunin." Sensei smirked here, "This also means that if you are injured during your genin days by your jonin, it is a mark of your own skill."_

Everyone in class had been aware that there were many things their sensei wasn't allowed to teach them, so if any of their attempts were refused, they came back and added it to the list of things she wasn't supposed to teach. But almost every member of their class had picked up a side specialty.

There were some learning sealing alongside Naruto, and Genma had been keeping his training a little hushed but everyone already knew and since no actual law stopped them, they didn't. Sakura was unofficially adopted into the Shiranui family so Genma could teach her though. Sakura didn't mind it because it never really had any big impact on her life. Aime had learnt a little before she decided she didn't want to be that aggressive and went into medical studies.

There were some that went into trap making, and she was sure if Naruto had more time, he would have too, but he spent most of his time on sealing, then the regime their sensei had drawn up for them. They couldn't afford to pick more than one specialties. Ino picked poison and Sakura did spend a weekend or two to learn some basics about poisoning, before going back to Genma for some resistance training.

In the end, Sakura was grateful that their sensei had decided to teach them. She was the best thing that happened to all of them. She couldn't have imagined Shikamaru actually not being lazy, if not for sensei pushing him to his limit. She was sure not all of what she taught was entirely legal, but since they didn't cross the line, sensei could teach them for the whole year!

Sakura fought beside her friends- her _comrades_ \- against her amazing teacher who moved through them all like she was an avenging angel. She used one hand to push back both Sasuke and Naruto, she broke through all their plans with ease. She knew how they worked and always pushed themselves higher, always giving them the chance to fight and improve their skills against her.

Sakura wanted to be like her.

No. Sakura wanted to _be_ her.

She wanted that strength, that control and that absolute situational awareness that she showed to them at all times.

But then, ambushing their jonin sensei, Hatake Kakashi, one of the elite shinobi in their village, Sakura had learnt something too.

Narumi-sensei wasn't the strongest. She wasn't the most graceful or the most beautiful. But...Sakura still wanted to be like her. She wanted to move through a battlefield, knowing where she was needed, always being there and _always_ saving someone. There was no time for mistakes.

Sakura knew that their class was a handful. But sensei navigated through them all like they were still the Academy kids they had been in the beginning, when she had first entered their class and turned their heads around.

She had to admit though, Hatake Kakashi was not someone to be taken lightly. Even sensei had ended up taking damage when all of them faced her together. Against the whole class at the same time, she had had to pull out weapons and jutsu. While her body was still her main weapon, her weapons enhanced her and her jutsu's were distracting and on point.

Though Kakashi-sensei had taken maybe a single scratch from fighting them head on with surprise and luck on their side. Even sensei would have been hard pressed to fight them that smoothly. They had a good sensei.

Though, it was too bad they wouldn't let a two man team instead. She and Aime worked perfectly together. She didn't even want to look at Sasuke or Naruto anymore, though each for different reasons.

When sensei had given them lessons on abuse, she had systematically broken them down and put almost all the symptoms on Naruto. The same Naruto who used to run after her and she used to yell and hit him, reinforcing his own self-worth issues and doubts, without even realizing. And she had chased after Sasuke, without even trying to understand his own burdens from his family.

Though, she had been angry and a little scared after a terrifying beat down from Sasuke in class, those feeling had flown away and while she had secretly still liked him, she hadn't realized how much her feelings had changed until they had taken a class picture and hung it on the Sasuke's empty repainted wall. Sasuke wasn't ever going to be a knight in shining armor, because he was a shinobi too.

And so was she.

It wasn't a realization that shook her world.

It was just the quiet acceptance that she hadn't even realized that she had made.

Sasuke wasn't her world, and he was never going to be. And in the end, she didn't want someone like Sasuke after all.

* * *

Shikamaru woke up like the way he was trained from birth, asleep one instance and awake the other. His breathing and heartbeat was as steady as when he was asleep, a trick he had learnt from experience from being a Nara.

He heard the whispering of two girls- Sakura and Aime- and there were a few mentions of a few of his classmates' names as well. He breathed in and the smell of hospital invaded his nostrils. He opened his eyes and looked around, and found Ino laying asleep beside him and Choji on the other bed.

He closed his eyes back again and remembered the way their ambush on their future jonin-sensei had ended.

_There was a moment of silence from his team while they stared at the jonin who had stumbled over the blast radius. Shikamaru kept his eyes open and nudged at Ino mentally. She took out her kunai with poisoned wire and strung it out with Shikamaru's subtle help. Their jonin sensei had still not emerged from the depths of the blast, and it was making them nervous._

_'Um...Maybe we should check if he's okay?' Choji asked them through the mental link hesitantly. Ino shook her head._

_'No way, he's a jonin. He's fine. Plus the explosion wasn't even strong enough to kill a jonin. Naruto made it, remember?' Shikamaru hmm'ed in agreement. If sensei had taught them one thing, it was the endless trust in the capability of their comrades who would go through hell for you._

_Of course, assessment of their skill level was important too. But Konoha shinobi were known for going above and beyond. Their class was the result of that being enforced._

_'Shi-' Ino's voice resounded in their mental link._ _The link cut off abruptly, and Shikamaru was instantly on alert. Ino was their communication. Asuma had taken her out first to make them panic, and judging from Choji's reaction, it was working. Their sensei was an unknown entity after all, it was natural Choji would be more worried about Ino than if they were fighting their sensei._

_But. Their sensei had forgotten they had done more 2-vs-1 than team vs 1._

_Shikamaru's shadow slithered to join Choji and and he hit him with the shadows. Though his chakra was draining fast, this was one last thing they could do._

_Asuma appeared in front of them, a fireball in his mouth and they jumped down to the ground. They were better with the ground than within the trees, even though they lived in Konoha._

_Uncloaked, Choji attacked Asuma, Shikamaru went through the signs of the Earth style and the second his feet touched the ground, he was caught. The shadows of the night decreased the chakra_ _expenditure, that second Choji's punch landed a full strength punch on Asuma's stomach. His chakra lashed out and Shikamaru remembered hearing a 'crack' sound before he was out like a light._

Chakra exhaustion, he guessed. Choji probably had a fracture somewhere. Maybe his arm.

He sighed.

Mission successful.

He wondered how happy she was going to be when she found out how many students of hers were placed into the hospital by jonins. She might just end up finally treating them all and go laugh at their teachers, or maybe scold them?

He wasn't even sure about it.

Troublesome woman.

* * *

Hinata woke up with despair. She had been the first to get knocked out. She sat up, and to her surprise, found someone sitting by her bedside.

"Kurenai-sensei!"

The woman was sitting beside her bedside reading a book. Hinata couldn't read the name on the cover for some reason, even though it was right in front of her face. She dismissed it, before rethinking and awakening her Byakugan.

She winced.

Her chakra pathways were throbbing. Kurenai closed the book and placed it on the bedside and so while she realized it was a genjutsu, no matter how much she tried, she couldn't actually read it. Kurenai placed a cool hand on her forehead.

"Shut off the Byakugan, Hinata-chan. You're not allowed to read these books." Hinata's lips pursed, but she accepted it and shut it down with a sigh of relief.

"You used your Byakugan a lot, so your chakra pathways are going to feel a little sore. They'll just check over you once and you can leave right after." She offered her water that Hinata gratefully accepted.

"Um...what about Kiba and Shino?" Kurenai smiled at her.

"They're fine. You're the only one who collapsed from chakra exhaustion and Shino was discharged already." Hinata nodded. Kurenai sighed.

"You know, you kids are amazing. A lot of jonin sensei were actually injured." Kurenai patted Hinata's arm. "You've done well."

Hinata nodded, a shy smile blooming on her lips.

"Thank you sensei." She laughed.

"I guess there really was no point in a test after all. When you all could beat up a jonin, you all could have all been sent up to chunin, but since its peace-time, you need to give the chunin exams." She winked, her voice dropping to a whisper, "But personally, I think all the jonins wanted to be able to teach something to you kids too. I know I did." She grinned at the surprised Hinata.

"I think, it's time I leave too." Kurenai turned around to leave. Hinata blinked at her back.

"Sensei, your book-" She turned around with a finger on her lips.

"For you. A little light reading while you're stuck here." She winked and walked out of the curtained off area.

Hinata looked at the book again, this time surprised that she could read the title clearly.

_Genjutsu: The subtleties of sight_


	10. Chapter 10

Narumi blinked her heavy lids open. A bright light shone into her eyes.

"-awake...put...under..."

Something hazy covered her vision before she became sleepy again.

"-sei...Na...sei."

"-wha..."

She heard familiar voices before it faded into the background into a blank haze that seemed to fill her head like white noise. A familiar blackness enveloped her once again.

* * *

It took two days before the teams were confirmed.

Apparently, their fights with their jonin-sensei had thrown many plans out the window and higher-ups were a bit of a mess. While the genin and some of the jonin were healing, many of them had ended up bonding with their students and some of other teams as well. The Hokage had given the jonin-sensei a looser reign on how to handle the genin, considering all of them showed promise in some way or the other.

Since all the injured genin were placed in the same room, it had become their meeting spot as well. All of them gathered and discussed how their fights had gone. Everyone had been surprised to see that Sasuke and Naruto had actually been unable to even touch their own jonin-sensei. Even their own sensei had struggled against the duo's surprising tactics from time to time.

Sakura, who had been the most frustrated, had been surprised to learn that she had been the only one to actually touch their jonin-sensei. Aime had become delegated to the support role halfway through, and Sasuke and Naruto's tactics hadn't managed to overwhelm the jonin until Sakura had been added in.

Amane and Aluka, who had hit it off surprisingly well, along with Kazuki and Ai had been the one team to out their jonin in the hospital. Though the jonin wasn't anyone special, but they had still managed to blindside someone who had already known about their fights.

Ino bragged about the fight with their jonin, who they had successfully managed to blindside enough to burn his hair and eyebrows. He had also been one of the recent arrivals to their village, one of the 12 Guardians who served the Daimyo for years, also the son of their Hokage. Then, Shikamaru stated off the statistics that made their tactic a success, which ended with Ino sulking and Choji quietly laughing while comforting her.

The civilian trio excitedly spoke about how they had strung up all the clones their sensei had sent at them, ending with the sensei unexpectedly knowing a few tricks to their traps that turned it against them, which was why they ended up losing. But the sensei hadn't gone unscathed.

Hinata started quietly but then Kiba excitedly talked about how they had handled their sensei, ending with Shino trying to outlast their sensei but unable to.

Then, Hinata told them about learning genjutsu from Kurenai, who was a well known genjutsu specialist already, though she was a new jonin. Aime pitched in with interest, along with Shikamaru and a few others. Instruction from a genjutsu specialist wasn't easily achieved, after all. They already knew about not letting opportunities pass them by, and they already knew how good a specialist in their field was.

Narumi-sensei had held off their whole class with nothing but taijutsu and the basic three for almost the whole year. A specialist was dangerous, and someone trained by them in the specialized field, even more so.

And while the students were discussing their teachers, the Hokage was looking at the gathering with considering eyes. Beside the Hokage, the three advisors sat, looking at the newest generation with suspicion, pride and disdain.

Danzo looked at the newest generation, frustrated at the failed attempt to snatch any more talents from the latest batch. None of them could be rejected by the jonin-sensei considering their high skill they had all shown.

He swallowed his contempt and watched the unwary children, wondering at what this newest chip on the board was up to and how he could play her.

* * *

Narumi woke up to the smell of hospital and the presence of many people in the room. She shot up to the ceiling, crouching there and opening her eyes to analyse the presences in her hospital room.

Chunin and above were generally given separate rooms, unless they were coma patients or something. No one wanted an unsuspecting shinobi to wake up with a kunai through their neck.

She blinked in surprise at the bunch of genin who had gathered around the couch on the other end of the room. They were looking at her with surprise, instinctively standing in front of the ones who were in no condition to attack in case of a threat.

To her surprise, they were all looking exhausted.

"Oh, sensei...you're awake." Amane said tiredly, before basically rolling back to sleep off the adrenaline rush. She raised an eyebrow, dropping down beside her bed. She hid a light wince when it jarred sore hip. She had been poisoned, but her teammate must have carried the poison back to Konoha for her treatment.

She opened the curtains, noticing the setting sun, then sighed.

"What have you kids been up to now?" She sat back on her bed slowly. She shouldn't have been jumping upside down so soon after waking up.

They looked at each other, before breaking out into sheepish grins.

"We injured our jonin-sensei." Choji said, a little sheepishly.

"All of them." Kazuki added with a grin. Her eyes widened.

"All?" She repeated.

"Well, most of them..." Sasuke sulked. Hinata giggled.

"Well, we didn't really manage to injure ours either." She added.

"But we managed to be placed in the hospital. Why did I mention that? Because I believe it counts." Shino said, a silent smirk in his words. Kiba laughed, putting his arm around his shoulder.

"Our jonin-sensei started teaching us genjutsu!" Kiba grinned at her.

The others pitched in with what was going on with their sensei, and she had to shake her head at them in surprise. So, they were good, but to think they managed to successfully ambush jonins...

She smiled at them.

"I'm proud of all of you. You managed something that happens very rarely." They blushed at her praise.

"Oh man, Naruto is going to be troublesome." Shikamaru said. Sasuke snorted.

"When isn't he?"

"Even more so now, he did miss sensei praising us to get ramen for everyone." Sakura said with a groan.

"Serves him right." Sasuke rolled his eyes. Sakura smacked his head.

"You're the one who goaded him into getting it for everyone! No wonder he's taking a long time!" She smiled watching them interact with each other. Shikamaru groaned, putting his head down on the table, looking totally done with all energy-consuming activities.

"I'm back! Who missed me!" Naruto jumped on the window with shopping bags full of cup ramen. He didn't even notice her, in his hurry to dump everything on the table. Shikamaru groaned again, pulling away from the table in time to avoid being hit by the avalanche of cup ramen.

"You didn't get the hot water!" Ino berated Naruto with her hand on her hip. Naruto sheepishly rubbed his head.

"Well, if I came from the front, they wouldn't have allowed me to get all this up here! And since I just came here, one of you go to get the water!" He grinned before collapsing on the floor. Narumi laughed.

"You already ate some on the way, didn't you?" She asked him. He shot up, turning around to look at her.

"Sensei! You're awake!" He said, acknowledging her words with a mischievous grin. She smiled at him, ruffling his hair. He looked like he had been sweating too.

"I'll go get it." Sasuke rolled his eyes. Naruto stuck his tongue out at his back. She pressed her lips together to stop herself from laughing at their antics. She had been gone a little more than two weeks and she had missed these kids already.

"I see, Kakashi-san is working all of you pretty hard." She patted Naruto's hair, then looked at everyone. "The jonin all seem to be working you all hard." Naruto nodded, looking at him with bright eyes.

"Kakashi-sensei is really really good! But he's a hard ass." He frowned. "But he's really good. When we ambushed him, all we managed was a scratched flak jacket! He was shoving it in our face and made us work so hard, we had to come to the hospital every evening!" Then he scratched his cheek with a smile.

"But he also carried us to the hospital when we couldn't walk! And he even treated us to barbecue in Choji's family restaurant!" Sasuke snorted, entering the room with a flask.

" _I_ treated you to that. He left without paying." Aime followed with an exhausted expression. Her smile became more genuine when she spotted Narumi. She placed the jug on the table before coming to her.

"Sensei, how are you feeling?" She lifted the board hanging at the end of the bed. "Any soreness or stinging pain? Does your head hurt? Do you recall everything?" Narumi answered everything, her eyes following Aime's as she noted down the answers on the board.

"That's good! You're mostly fine already. Just sleep here tonight and you'll be released tomorrow." Aime was about to walk right out before Sakura caught her arm.

"Where are you going? Let's eat up. We haven't talked to sensei in a while!" Aime looked at her surprised before laughing sheepishly.

"I'm starting to treat everyone like a patient now..." She accepted a bowl, peeling back the cover and pouring in the water. Narumi watched them with warm eyes.

"Sensei can't have any!" Aime berated Naruto who was about to give one to Narumi. He looked sadly at her before placing it back on the cleared off table. Narumi laughed.

"I don't have ramen that often anyway." She said, trying to comfort Naruto. Instead he gave her a scandalized look.

"Sensei!" Sakura berated her. "Don't make Naruto start now! Or he'll never stop!" She glared at Naruto, who pouted but said nothing.

Narumi, on the other hand, was surprised at how fast her students had become casual with her. Some of them laughed before teasing Naruto about his ramen addiction.

Her students were already treating her as less of a sensei and more like an older sister. She had always been that figure for Naruto, Sasuke and Aime, but Sakura, Amane, Kizaki, Ino, and even Choji and Hinata were treated her like that now. Shikamaru, she wasn't even sure what kind of figure she was to him. Kiba always behaved brashly, but respected her at the same time. For Shino, she was somewhere between a sister and a teacher. Probably.

She asked about the other students, before finding out, some of them were too tired to visit that day, and some sensei had taken the students out for some over-night training.

The evening ended with her catching up with what they were doing, and how their jonin-sensei were treating them. They had already become used to harsh training, so they adapted quite well to the mellow versions of the training the jonin themselves did.

Naruto gave detailed but embellished accounts of how their training went with Sasuke and Sakura intervening at times. Sometimes, Aime would burst out, telling him to stop talking about some embarrassing detail during their training time.

Naruto spoke with horror about their first meeting with Gai, who called their sensei his 'Eternal Rival'. Kakashi had dropped his students on Gai that day and they still spoke with horror about the training and the genjutsu nothing could dissapate.

She laughed and told them that Gai was a renowned taijutsu specialist who she often sparred with in the morning. He was the one who gave her all the colorful bruises they sometimes noticed.

Sakura seemed interested when she talked about their spars, she noticed. Then, Sakura mentioned that Genma sometimes dropped by to offer her and Aime tips and Kakashi-sensei had allowed them to continue training with him, but only on the times he wanted them to do specialized training.

Aime had a schedule to maintain with the hospital because she wanted to be a medic, and Kakashi had been very compromising about that as long as she completed his training too.

He gave them rest days and worked them hard every other day with missions and tips to help them if they failed badly enough. Sometimes, he just watched and laughed at their misery, Naruto griped.

Sometimes, he would assign them almost impossible tasks like, tying their hands and legs together, restricting their chakra and telling them to complete an obstacle course that they would be hard pressed to complete even with chakra and all their limbs. Kakashi loved watching them fail and he would point out all their mistakes until they found a way to prevent them from making them.

Even if they completed their course, Kakashi made them redo it until they had made no mistake at all.

Needless to say, they were still on the first obstacle course.

Even Sasuke complained that Kakashi was a perfectionist of the highest level. But, he also had to admit that the man knew what he was doing.

Ino agreed with their assessments and complained about how their Asuma-sensei was a slave-driver as well. He had called them an assassination type squad and because of that, he had been pushing their stealth and awareness. He had called for blind-fold sparring without chakra where they got absolutely trashed.

He was also, Ino added, very hot when he sweated, but he had his eyes on another jonin, unfortunately. Hinata took over, much to Ino's delight, talking about how she had spotted Asuma and her sensei, Kurenai out on a date.

Kurenai had started teaching them her specialty to her team already. Kiba complained how genjutsu was hard to manage for him, though Shino and Hinata took to it like fish to water. Then again, he added sheepishly, his mom had been pushing his clan training a lot too.

Kizaki mentioned how _their_ teacher had them dropped off in this random Training Ground which was scary and everything that moved seemed to want to kill them and they had almost ended up dying a million times or so. They almost died from their own traps, from other animals, from being dehydrated or hungry and even once from attacking each other accidentally.

He was always carrying a sealing scroll full of water and rations wherever he went now, because of his scary jonin-sensei who seemed to be out on a war path against her team.

It had been about two weeks with their jonin-sensei and they were all dead tired already. Narumi just laughed and made them go back to their homes. Though Naruto and Sasuke ended up sleeping on the couch. Sakura dragged Aime away before she ended up staying with Narumi as well.

Then, it was just Naruto and Sasuke, curled up around each other on the uncomfortable couch, sleeping soundly under her watchful eyes.

* * *

Narumi got up early, dropped her mission report at Anbu Headquarters, woke up the boys and signed herself out. She half carried them to her flat, made them breakfast and dropped them off at their regular training ground on time.

She had been surprised to see that Kakashi still hadn't arrived so she made them stretch and told them random shinobi stories from her experience, like that time she had accidentally uncovered a drug cartel that almost blew their mission into full on FUBAR. But thankfully, another Nation had it handled and she had subtly handed off all information about the cartel and somehow finished their mission avoiding the eyes of the shinobi.

Sometimes, it happened that another Nation's shinobi would turn their eyes away from you, as long as it didn't hurt their own mission. They didn't want to get into a fight with unknown shinobi, even if they were from an enemy Nation. No one wanted their own mission to fail.

She had once even become friendly with an undercover Iwa shinobi, before they had realized the other was a shinobi too.

The Wars were mostly about politics, only Suna ever had actual problems because of its land. But every Nation had found a solution to their problems. The shinobi never really wanted War, but pride and politics made War inevitable.

"But of course, that doesn't mean there can't be peace. It's just a little hard to achieve, that's all." She smiled wryly, "Who knows? Maybe we won't even experience another War after the last one. It's already been a decade of peace by now."

But it was a false hope. Kiri had a lot of internal conflict, Konoha's borders were still being tested, people were still dying, civilians were still suffering. There were still many problems in the world. And also, the system of shinobi thrived on War.

It wasn't ever going to be easy.

"Or maybe, your generation will find an answer." She grinned at them. "No one really knows the future, after all."

Sasuke tilted his head with a considering look, even as he continued doing his workout. They were all contemplating her words.

"Okay then!" Kakashi appeared between them with a clap. "Up! Since you're all warmed up and you're thinking already! Let's start your Obstacle Course Version 2!"

Their eyes widened. Naruto collapsed on the ground with a groan. Sasuke heaved himself up with a sigh and Sakura offered Naruto a hand.

"Might as well start now if we're gonna spend a whole week on this one too," Sasuke said, rolling his shoulders. Aime offered Naruto a smile as he got up with a pitiful look. Narumi unfolded her legs and got up smoothly. Her injury wasn't even an hindrance anymore.

"Well then, I guess, I should be leaving too." She said a little reluctantly, watching them go through the ritual of binding their own feet together. Four people attached like that seemed a little excessive, but their overall cohesion had gone up a lot.

Generally it was Sasuke and Naruto with Sakura and Aime, but now, the four walked like a team. They were all aware and in synchronization with each other. What she had started, Kakashi was building on.

Kakashi flipped open a book in front of him.

"You should stay and watch." He subtly looked at the students who were throwing the bandages at each other with playful scowls.

Sasuke was rolling his eyes with a subtle smile, double checking the tightness of the binding between his and Sakura's leg. Sakura used her free leg to half-heartedly kick at Naruto who yelped and almost fell. Aime caught him unsteadily before falling and taking everyone down with her.

He eye smiled at her.

"After all, they should be performing at their best when their favorite sensei comes to visit." He said a little louder. Aime giggled, before Sakura pinched her.

"You're our favorite too, Kakashi-sensei." Naruto said earnestly, with wide blue eyes. His hands were behind his back and Sasuke was tying them up behind him with a scowl.

"Yeah, sure he is." Sakura murmured sarcastically under her breath with an annoyed look, tugging at her hands that were already tied up behind her. Kakashi's eye smile somehow became menacing. Sasuke flicked at Sakura's arm, and she looked up at Kakashi with her eyes wide.

"What was that, Sakura-chan? Did you say something about skipping lunch and keep going all night until you all complete this Obstacle Course?" Aime, Sasuke and Sakura paled. Naruto pouted at him for going ignored.

"N-No, of course not, sensei!" Sakura laughed awkwardly. "I was just agreeing with Naruto! You're definitely our favorite too, and we're gonna try super extra hard for you!" She promised. Aime kicked her from behind.

"Don't promise him too much," she hissed. Naruto nodded, a smile stuck on his face.

"Yeah, what if he makes us go all night or something." Sasuke shivered at that.

"Don't even joke about that." She watched the byplay with surprised eyes before turning to look at Kakashi who was ignoring them to look at her.

"Sounds like it'll be fun." She agreed, suppressing her smile. She looked at the four kids nudging playfully at each other at her agreement.

Jonin-sensei usually kept their team training private, aside from anyone they needed assistance from, that is. But Kakashi was friends with _Gai_ who was probably one of the best taijutsu specialists in the entire Continent. He didn't exactly need her there. So, while she was suspicious about his motives, she would never refuse to spending more time with her students. Well, _ex-_ students now.

Though the problem now was that she hadn't been expecting to be invited to watch the training session, so she was dressed more casually than normal. She didn't have any bandages on, aside from the one around her hips. She wasn't even wearing a flak jacket, and was only carrying one strapped-on pouch of kunai.

Her body may be her greatest weapon, but she was starting to feel a little under dressed for a training session.

Also, Kakashi was practically boring holes into her head, absolutely unsubtle about his observation. She rolled her eyes internally.

Okay, so she had maybe stepped over the tiny line drawn between elite jonin and chunin, but well, she hadn't been officially reprimanded, so she had assumed he would let it go. She probably shouldn't have, considering the fact that it was Hatake Kakashi she was talking, loner extraordinaire, the man who was more likely to talk to a stone than to a human being.

He was also more likely to be talked to by a rock than a human being. Unless the human being was called Gai.

She sometimes wondered if he had even talked to someone other Gai about anything not related to a mission. She met Kakashi's eyes with a smile on her face.

Well, it didn't hurt to be friendly.

* * *

Kakashi kept an eye on the woman beside him, while keeping track of his new students stumbling through another run of the Obstacle Course Version 2. He had received a lot of tips from Gai during their last match, but the number of things she kept track of while the kids went through the course, still managed to surprise him.

Well, yes, their form wasn't perfect when they faced something new, but as they experienced it again and again, they would automatically fix it. But no, she didn't think like that. If the form was wrong, she noted what they needed to fix, then made a point to point out what they did wrong before their next run.

It sped up the speed at which they completed their course, to the degree it completely overtook their previous progress. They had noted most of their problems themselves before, and they had worked on fixing it, but she called out every time their form was even a little off. She had completely taken command of the students and had them work through the course like they were just running with their eyes closed. Like, the lack of chakra and proper use of their limbs was just a mild hindrance.

He hadn't doubted her competence before, but it was totally different from witnessing it himself.

By mid-day, she barely even pointed out their mistakes, letting them fix it by themselves as it happened. When they finished the course with a considerably less number of issues, she turned around and winked at him before going back to watching them break down their own faults with a smile. Occasionally, she added a few more things, but by now, all they needed to work out the kinks was more practice.

He ended up adding a few things himself, adding his own experience with hers until the exercise wasn't even about team cohesion anymore. It was just an addition to their skills, instead. He found himself listening to her tips, and sometimes, adding more information that she had missed out on.

She hadn't known Sasuke was trying to wield a sword, or that Sakura was doing strength training, or that Naruto was using the shadow clones to get his chakra control better. Every time he informed her of something new, she would have this sad but proud smile on her lips, like she watching her own children instead.

He found that he understood her better because of it.

It was...different. He ended up inviting her for a drink to celebrate her promotion. She had a comically surprised expression at that. He was glad he had most of his face covered then. He wasn't sure why, but he had found he didn't mind spending a bit more time with her. She was welcoming and kind, he found. Not just to her students, but to him as well.

(In the back of his mind, he wondered if she was taking him in like she had taken in her kids. He had read up on how she had practically adopted Naruto, Sasuke and Aime. Those three had ended up as his students too, in the end. Perhaps, that was why...)

(He wondered why he was even thinking about it.)

(He didn't know.)


	11. Chapter 11

Narumi found herself giggling on her way back to her apartment. She had waved off Kakashi not too long ago, and now she was just thinking about her day and finding him adorable. It was funny the way he had opened up to her through the day.

Well, she said 'opened up' but she just meant he actually _talked_. In the beginning, it was just her talking about the kids, and he had been so different from the way he was that night she confronted him, that it had thrown her off. He had been so casual and teasing with the kids, that she felt like it was a totally different person.

She hadn't even known he could be like that.

She had to stifle her laughter so many times when he deadpanned something that he didn't even realize was funny. Over the course of the day, she had fallen back into her role of teacher and it had been...unexpected that he had sort of, fallen in line?

She had faced with so many jonins who had mocked her for being a trainer that she had been surprised to see someone actually respect her specialty.

He acknowledged her superiority in this and he had listened to every piece of advice that she had absentmindedly thrown out. He had added in some new things for her consideration, then _listened_ when she contemplated about those additions. They had become quite comfortable by the time the training session got over. The kids were tired, and he had dismissed them for the day.

Then, they had just gone on talking even without the kids there. When he had awkwardly asked her out for a drink about her newest promotion, she had been feeling quite accommodating. They had been interrupted a few times, and she talked a few other jonin-sensei who had been delighted to interrogate her about her students too. She had even eaten after, while talking to different people, or Kakashi, when no one came over.

It had all been very casual, and she had actually been quite comfortable the whole time. While she did have friends, she didn't generally spend much time with people casually. Other than Genma. So, it had been a nice change of pace.

After they parted, she found her mind wandering to Genma, who she hadn't actually seen in a while. While they met up sometimes, they had a very casual friends-with-benefits type of relationship. They had an open relationship, mostly on his side, because she barely had much time what with her teaching the kids in the Academy, then her own training.

Genma sometimes dropped by, and she knew neither of them were romantically interested in the other. They had established that in the very beginning. Neither Genma nor her were the type of people who led people on. They were both straightforward with what they wanted.

She reached her apartment, immediately showering and changing her bandage, before ending up in her bed. She didn't even remember falling asleep after, still thinking of that one moment where Kakashi had turned to look her her with this slight crinkle at the corner of his eye while she was talking about something or the other. He had laughed then, looking at her with surprised eyes.

It had been quite an enjoyable night, to say the least.

* * *

Without the Academy taking up her days and her training, making regimes and training whichever of her kids were around taking her night, she actually ended up feeling a tad lonely. Generally this was around the time she would go looking for more missions...

But this time she didn't _want to_. She wanted to be around to see her kids grow stronger, to see how fast they grew and the way they utilized her training methods for themselves, even beyond the Anbu recruits.

The Anbu recruits she trained ended up _good,_ but it was different with these kids. They were building their base with her training. They weren't just building another wall to protect themselves. They were building themselves with a part of her training that would always be with them.

How could she not find it meaningful?

She wanted to see it through. She wanted to see them grow from these buds and bloom brighter. She wanted them to enchant the world with their own brilliance.

She had been worried that she hadn't trained them well enough, that they could die easily in the bloody world out there. But she shouldn't have. If there was one thing that she loved about Konoha, it was that they would support each other when it came down to it.

There were some idiots who caused her more work, some who troubled her when she didn't need it, some who were clumsy or some who were too naive. There were some too kind, some too moronic, some too cruel. Some that might not even love Konoha, in the end. But, when it really truly came down to it, most would abandon all the shallow ideals and stand beside their comrades.

A lot of people doubted the way Konoha prioritized teamwork over all else. Konoha had many bloodline limit users, it had many ninjutsu users, many swordsmen, but even with all the skill, Konoha had never prioritized power. Kiri praised skill, Kumo valued kekkei genkai, Iwa had a hold on rare ninjutsu, Sand had unique talents and fields unheard of in any other place, but Konoha prioritized something as common as teamwork.

It didn't mean sacrificing Konoha for their comrades, though that was one way of thinking of it.

It meant, to hold the ideal of 'protect' inside everyone.

Hashirama, the First Hokage, held in him his ideal to protect the future; and so did every Hokage after him, because that was the role of Hokage. People rarely agreed with all the choices their Hokage made, but that was okay. The Hokage was supposed to protect the future, not the current generations. It was the duty of the shinobi to protect the _now._

Many people saw 'The Will of Fire' as different things. But as she herself grew, forgave, mourned and protected, that was the answer she had come up with.

_Protect._

She wasn't anything special. She was one of thousands. She wasn't going to be anything special in the future either. But, she was still glad she was able to protect a piece of the future, even with what little power she had.

She invited some of the other teams over to her place. If they had some trouble at home, or they wanted to meet up with their friends in different teams, they started coming over to her home. Her nights started become more lively, and she spent her days with Gai, or sometimes Genma, or Raido, or sometimes even Kakashi, who ended up inviting her along for their training every time they met.

She even started training while Team 7 trained. She had laughed for an hour when she saw Kakashi whipping their ass in a full out team vs Kakashi. She finally realized why everyone who used to watch her fight her class laughed at her so much.

If she didn't know better, she would have said Sasuke was sending shuriken her way on purpose while getting beaten to near-death by Kakashi. Sakura almost manifested killing intent at one point there.

It was pretty impressive, if she didn't count the singed eyebrows on Naruto and the pathetic death glare on Sasuke's face. Aime was getting good at dodging too. Kakashi had started sneaking in more chakra training for everyone so Aime could finally pull a Kakashi with her clones.

As in emergency escape and trickery via clones _everywhere._

Kakashi used clones to escape paying his own tab on her. She never minded paying for others, so she found it hilarious, but she had heard that quite a few jonins straight up refused to eat out if Kakashi was there. She wasn't sure if she should be pitying those jonin or Kakashi's terrible communication skills.

Helping out Team 7 was always entertaining though. Kakashi and her always ganged up on the kids- quite unfairly, in their opinion- and they ended up punished so badly that they barely managed to walk back.

She was sure she would lose count of how often they were spending nights in her apartment. She had even bought more towels and futons for everyone, what with most of her kids dropping by sweaty and tired after training.

Shikamaru and Ino finally pouted her into coming to their training session, then sheepishly presented her to Asuma like a cat's gift to their master. Turned out they had been pushing for her to attend their training without gaining permission from their jonin-sensei.

Generally, it was a risk. But the ones asking were three major clan heirs and their sensei was actually a pretty laid back person.

Asuma had been in Konoha a little more than 6 months, when he was requested to take on this team as his genin. He had been planning to take it easy on them, but they had actually managed to injure a _jonin._

He hadn't wasted time working them through. There weren't any teamwork exercises like Kakashi did, but there were many strategic plays. It wasn't only Shikamaru wracking his brains either. Ino and Choji were working to find different answers for the same question.

Choji had surprising out-of the-box ideas that sometimes gave Shikamaru a pause. Ino's emotional analysis was above average, but sometimes her own stubbornness was her own wall limiting herself. Shikamaru, on the other hand, had a different issue all together.

Shikamaru thought too much. He would overthink while trying to under-think, which ended up giving himself a headache. A battlefield actually gave him many variables to analyse, which helped him reach the correct goal, but his lack of field experience betrayed him quite a few times.

She had spent quite a few nights sitting on her couch with him, explaining where he went wrong. Shikamaru wasn't suited for a mediocre life, no matter what his initial life aspiration had been. He wouldn't have been able to stand it. He wasn't the kind of person to step aside and let someone else take the hard road, when he knew, he could make it easier. He was kind in his cruelty.

Perhaps, that was why he was overly attached to her. She was quite familiar with 'tough love' after all. What other sort of love had she ever received after all? Her family, her team, her students... Wasn't every one of her relationships based on tough love?

She didn't remember when it started, but maybe it had always been there. She had found so many discrepancies in his behavior from what Iruka always told her, and somehow, Shikamaru's behavior had only gotten further away from what Iruka had first told her about him. Shikamaru put in more of his effort, then more and more until he was struggling harder than he ever had in her class.

There was no doubt that he was smart. If anyone were to give him anything new to study, he would have it down in the fifth of the time it took anyone else. If Shikamaru wanted, he could have become better than Ino at her specialty, someone who was born and bred by the Yamanaka. If Shikamaru ever dedicated himself to jutsu analysis and creation, he could create a few different fields on his own.

But, he was born and bred for strategy, like his father.

If he hadn't spent so much time improving himself, learning more things, changing his own world view; she might have been defeated by her class months ago.

If she faced off against her class now, she doubted she would win that easily, or at all. They had none of the restriction the Academy had placed them under and on top of that, they had about half a month of learning under a new teacher- a jonin, at that.

So, her first day with Team 10 began with her apologizing to the jonin instructor while Ino whined at Asuma, Shikamaru coming up to her with an exhausted sigh and Choji greeting her cheerfully.

Needless to say, she could predict the entirety of how the day would go.

* * *

_No_ she couldn't have predicted the way the day would go. She really truly couldn't have.

Asuma started his lessons after lunch and started with training their strategy, tactics and methods of operation. From what they had already told her, they usually started their training like this. Asuma gave them a task and they had to find a method to accomplish it in a given scenario, Asuma would walk them through the scenario and tell them about everything that could go wrong.

Needless to say, they were almost always dying before accomplishing their mission in those scenarios.

He had assigned them as a assassination squad instead of a search and rescue like the previous Ino-Shika-Cho, which she had found curious considering she hadn't even realized that was the direction the three of them were going to. The last time she had fought against those three, they had been sneaky and used a few tricks, but it had mostly been a frontal attack.

Asuma must have seen their direction of development. She had been with them every step so it wasn't surprising that it was hard for her to see the big picture. That was why jonin sensei were assigned after all.

By the exercises he assigned them, she realized what he was doing. A Guardian, like Asuma, was basically a bodyguard. After so long, he had to be excellent. So, he was going to teach them the tricks of his trade.

Assassination and body guarding were two sides of the same coin after all.

Ino was good at the subtleties of assassination, using subterfuge to slip under the radar. Shikamaru, on the other had, had taken a liking to body guarding. He liked planting ambushes on people who thought they had won. Choji was the one who was good at finding out Ino's tricks, even better than Shikamaru. He was empathetic and he instinctively understood when someone had ill intention. He had a well developed sixth sense.

While Shikamaru saw the world with facts, Choji used his instincts just as well.

Perhaps this was why they were turning out to be the most surprising team out of all her students. Like most of the students, they didn't manage to show off all their skill and develop them to their potential in her class, restricted as they were.

Now, without the rest of the class to make up for their weaknesses, they had to become all rounders themselves.

In Narumi's class, they had developed their strengths and recognized their own weaknesses, while developing their skills of teamwork with anyone they were thrown together with.

Even now, she knew that her students were learning about their new comrades, so as to not be a hindrance in any actual battle. Of course, Genin wouldn't voluntarily be thrown in any dangerous situations, but it had already been a decade since peace between the Nations started. It wouldn't be surprising if war were to start up anytime soon.

Just by knowing something about their allies, they had a major heads up in case of an invasion or war. Most jonin could do that by sheer experience though. She could look at someone and predict the kind of combatant they were, made much easier if they were of Konoha.

It was also why it was both easier and harder to fight missing nin from their own country. You could predict them, but they could predict you too.

It was another reason why missing nin from Konoha didn't last long. They were hunted down unless they were overwhelmingly strong like Orochimaru or Itachi. There were a few hidden ones too, but overall, Konoha had the lowest number of missing nin. Though the few that were out there, were the truly dangerous ones.

A squad like the newest Ino-Shika-Cho could be the ones going after A or S ranked missing nin, after a few years, of course. Maybe even a decade. S ranked nin were hard to handle even in the peak of a shinobi's life.

Nonetheless, the light dimmed into evening and that's when Asuma offered her his attention with a wicked grin.

"How about you show them how it's done with a practical exercise, Narumi?" Her eye twitched, but she gave in when she felt the students boring a hole through her head with eager eyes. She was glad she hadn't expended much chakra, because with a training field, a Nara level intellect, and the teamwork of one of the greatest teams of the batch present, she was going to have a hard time.

A _very_ hard time, she rephrased internally, looking at Asuma's hidden grin and Shikamaru's sly smirk.

So to rephrase her earlier statement, _no_ she couldn't have guessed how the day as going to go. She hadn't had any idea that she was walking right into a trap. Abet a mostly harmless one.

The night was basically a wild goose chase, where Narumi stumbled over pre-set traps, ambushes, disabled genjutsu she almost hadn't found, and had a lot of mind-numbing action- thank you Ino- and managed to get by without getting captured by either of the three.

They ended up expending too much effort into capturing her and ended up exhausting themselves.

Well, Asuma did tell her to do a runaway missing nin simulation for them, since that was their topic of the day. So she didn't give them much of a leeway in that regard. They were fine as long as they had a stable location, but they were terrible at chase and capture.

Ino-Shika-Cho was originally a rescue and capture squad, but this newest version was surprisingly not as good as she had been expecting. Though, it shouldn't be much of a surprise considering she had taught them survival combat and Asuma had just started teaching them about the more advanced techniques.

They had good tricks up their sleeves but it wasn't blended in to their fighting style by experience just yet. They needed to do more of the searching type missions, and improve their own stealth, of course.

After the exercise, Asuma made them play the whole chase out and pointed out mistakes they made. He even pointed out a few things she should have been aware and more wary of- Ino's new genjutsu skill, and Shikamaru's blending with the shadows- along with things she could do better- be more aggressive to pursuers.

She might have ended up a tad more wary.

But, she was a little disappointed too.

Asuma was good, but somehow Kakashi- with her trouble children- were ahead of them.

In the past few weeks, Kakashi had improved their skill level tremendously without giving them a single one of his revered thousand jutsu. She had been right there watching them.

But she had actually been expecting more improvements from them than what had she had seen. They were good, but. Not _that_ good.

It was interesting to develop them as shinobi by teaching them to use the cover of the night, but the dark was also a Nara's comfort zone. He should have held it at mid-day, under the blazing sun, where every shadow would be seen.

Asuma was developing them mentally and physically, but it was still lacking.

She laughed under her breath.

She finally understood why they had insisted on bringing her into their team training.

So after training ended, she called Asuma away from under the watchful eye of the team, and ruthlessly tore into him for letting their talents go to waste.

All three were receiving training from their clan, but Asuma wasn't just supposed to show them to work as a team, he was supposed to help them grow as shinobi as well. What was with this wastage of potential? Asuma had spent two weeks with his team and he hadn't even had a proper talk with them. He hadn't realized Choji's self consciousness, and if he had, well, that was even worse!

He was _letting_ Choji lag behind his team.

Un. Acceptable.

She broke down every part of his training and its purpose, and reconstructed the whole thing from base up. She spent two hours pointing out every single flaw he had as a teacher and how to fix it. He better fix it or next time it would be Shikaku on his ass instead of their Academy instructor.

He sat speechless for about five more minutes after she finished talking, before asking for a pen and paper and writing all her tips down from memory.

In the end she concluded that anyone who could take her tearing into them and actually use the advice instead of dissing back at her had to be one heck of a good person.


	12. Chapter 12

Team 8 consisted of Hinata Hyuuga, Aburame Shino and Inuzuka Kiba led by jonin Kurenai. It was a team formation that had been decided months before, years even. The three clans were foremost in their tracking abilities and as more methods came out to hide, their abilities became even greater until the three clans were almost head to head in their own tracking abilities.

Every tracking team consisted of at least one of the clan members. This was the first generation which had all three clans put together- the culmination of all the tracking abilities of the three clans. There was more riding on this team than just politics, and Kurenai knew this. She had chosen this team because she had wanted to nurture Hinata properly.

Selfishly, she had only thought of Hinata, and not of the other two. She had felt a little out of her depth when the Hokage decided on the all-or-nothing decision for this team, but she had accepted because she was capable, wasn't she? She was a jonin, what were three genin in front of a jonin? She had many skills that she could teach them, and they had their own clan training on top of that.

They would already be busy with just that, she thought.

She wasn't blind.

Narumi was a special jonin with taijutsu and teaching specialization. She wasn't even a jonin when she taught in the Academy, but she had been teaching before that. Kurenai was sure of that. No one was that good from the get-go. But, Narumi was the representation everything Kurenai failed at.

Kurenai was a failure as a teacher. She had failed the Kurama clan, and even more importantly, her student. Then she had tried to help Hinata, and failed there too. She loved her students, but she felt helpless in front of them. She wasn't as good as Narumi, but she was trying.

Most evenings, Team 8 would leave her team training and end up at Narumi's house. Even now, she could hear the soft giggling voice of Hinata, and the brash loudness of Kiba. She could hear Naruto start a fight with Kiba, and Sasuke talking to Shino and Hinata. She could hear the soft clinking of utensils on the table as Narumi plated food for the only two teams in her apartment.

Narumi laughed while talking to them, and Kurenai wondered again what she was doing.

So lost in thought was she that she didn't even realize someone was behind her.

"Kurenai-san?" Her eyes widened and she turned around. Kakashi was climbing up the steps with a pack of desserts on his hands. She stared at the desserts, then up at Kakashi, then at the stairs, and wondered if someone had managed to put her under a genjutsu. Her chakra lightly pulsed out, so subtle that even Kakashi barely felt it.

He flushed under his mask at Kurenai's stare basically asking 'since when do _you_ take the stairs _and_ bring desserts?'

He ignored the stare, bringing up his other hand up, bringing the infamous porn book to her attention. Kurenai glanced at it, before deciding to ignore it. It was already a part of Kakashi by now.

"Why don't you go in?" Kakashi said, continuing his climb and walking by Kurenai to reach for the door leading to the apartment her team was in. Kurenai flushed. Left with no other option she nodded.

"Yes, I was planning to." Kakashi hid a smile under his mask and hidden by the book. He had already sensed her standing there for the last three minutes. He opened the door, changed his shoes and stepped in. He invited Kurenai in as well, before walking in casually.

"Sensei, sensei, did you get it?" Naruto came screaming at them, hearing the door opening, while Kurenai changed slippers. She was actually surprised by the number of slippers Narumi had. Did she keep one for every one of her students or something?

"Maa, I think I left it back at the shop. You should go run and get it for me, Naruto." Kakashi replied. Kurenai raised an eyebrow. So the kids had managed to make Kakashi buy for them?

"Kakashi-sensei!" Three voices chorused in irritation. Kurenai snickered under her breath.

"Pardon the intrusion," she interrupted, entering the living room.

"Welcome, Kurenai-san." Narumi smiled at her. "I was wondering when you were coming in." Kurenai blushed, embarrassed at being caught by her too.

"I apologize for the disturbance. I wasn't aware you were a sensor," Kurenai had a few sensor friends, and many of them would get very irritated at people lingering outside their apartments. It was also another reason why sensors were generally posted in the field with people they were familiar with.

Surprisingly, Narumi just waved her off.

"Oh, I'm not. Your students were the ones who found you." Kurenai blinked at her three students smiling at her sheepishly. She smiled back at them, warmth blooming in her chest. Narumi ruffled Kiba's hair.

"You put them through genjutsu training, right?" Kurenai nodded in response. Narumi smiled gently. "That helped their chakra sensing quite a bit too. It increased their sensitivity to mild fluctuations in chakra." Kiba grinning brightly at her and the other two nodded. "You should check their chakra control in their next lesson. They have improved a lot under your guidance."

"Oh," she breathed out, surprised by the praise. Narumi turned around, putting her hands on her hips.

"And you four! Where are you all sneaking off to with the dessert your sensei brought?" Sakura coughed before pointedly stepping away from Naruto who was non-subtly trying to sneak away. Aime looked up at Narumi with an equally guilty expression, while Sasuke looked away with a lightly flushed face.

"And you, Kakashi! Stop sneaking in all the egg plant already!" There was a guilty silence from the kitchen.

Kurenai blinked a few times, before she burst out into laughter.

Barely a week ago, she had heard that Narumi had spent hours schooling Asuma in the art of teaching. To be honest, she had been thinking about asking Narumi's help way before she went to Team 10, but she had kept delaying. She had actually been a little afraid that she was going to told that she was a terrible teacher by one of the most famous teachers in the village.

She hadn't been expecting to be praised.

Her dread disappeared, and she smiled. Warmth was bursting from her heart.

She really loved this village.

On the other hand, Narumi was scolded all five of them for doing what they wanted with the food.

* * *

Narumi washed the foam from the last plate and handed it to Kakashi. Kakashi took the plate and wiped it, placing it in it's usual position in the kitchen. Kakashi had been in her apartment so often, he practically lived there. Though the same could be said with Team 7, Team 8 and Team 3. Though Team 3 just came by to sleep on her floor. Their jonin was releasing all her vengeful feelings on her poor students.

Well, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?

Even then, Kakashi was the only jonin who ended up in her apartment this often. Generally, she was surrounded by children, so it was a nice change. Though Iruka had been dropping by increasingly often to talk to Naruto. Well, Team 7 as a whole had been spending more time in her apartment along with Kakashi.

Well, it wasn't like Kakashi would drop by _without_ the team.

She turned around to look at the living room after wiping her hands.

Kurenai was teaching the two teams genjutsu tricks. Hinata had her Byakugan on and was sitting beside Naruto to stop an explosion, Aime was doing surprisingly well though she was lagging behind even Kiba, who had always problems with genjutsu in the Academy. Kurenai was a good teacher, her initial assessment might have been biased. She had looked down at the new jonin too much.

After all, Kurenai had taught two people already right?

Narumi had judged her too hastily. They had different specializations and teaching methods, but Kurenai's methods suited her team.

"How did you know what she needed to hear?" Kakashi interrupted her train of though, turning to look at her. Narumi kept her eyes on Kurenai, though she felt Kakashi's gaze on her keenly.

She hummed under her breath, thinking about the question.

"Something like teacher's instinct." She let out a smile when Sasuke involuntarily gasped when Kurenai did a genjutsu that looked, felt and reacted like a fire ninjutsu, but it really wasn't.

"As a teacher, I have to understand their insecurities, their strengths and weaknesses better than they themselves know it." She looked at Kakashi, a faint smile lingering on her lips. "It's nothing special, just something gained through sheer experience and psychology."

Kakashi tiled his head.

"As a person totally lacking this instinct, I have to say it is something 'special'. It's a type of talent too." He noted casually, his eye set on the students, though his focus was still on her.

Narumi's eyes widened. The words striking deep within her.

A type of 'talent'.

As a person who had always thought of herself as quite powerless and average...

She used a hand to cover her cheeks, looking down at the wooden floorboards. A deep blush spread helplessly over her face until her whole face felt like it was burning red.

She hadn't been expecting something like that at all.

Kakashi frowned, confused at her odd reaction. Was she contemplating his words that deeply? He looked up in time to see Naruto exhale loudly before collapsing backward and start snoring. The rest of his team rolled their eyes at his antics in unison before focusing back on Kurenai. She stifled a smile at Naruto before continuing to list out the ways it could be used.

Hinata gently untangled her fingers from Naruto's, hidden from other genin eyes.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. Since when did the two start holding hands? He had gotten too distracted. He looked at Narumi who was looking at Naruto with the softest smile he had seen on her. Her eyes were honey-warm, like a mother looking at her child. She huffed, before walking towards the pile of futons she kept in her apartment. Kakashi followed without a second thought.

He should definitely help if they were planning to sleep over. It was quite late after all.

Narumi walked with her shoulders definitely _not_ tensed, and definitely _not_ feeling the distant warmth of Kakashi's body.

Of course not.

* * *

Kurenai kept an eye on Kakashi and Narumi. They were surprisingly domestic and she had spotted the blush on Narumi's face. She grinned to herself, this was going to be _very_ interesting pair.

She watched as the kids slowly got drowsy and she urged them to go to sleep. Instead of going home, they went into another room which she was surprised to find had futons laid out for everyone. Sasuke and Naruto, who woke up just to argue with him, slept in one. Aime, Hinata and Sakura joined two and slept together, and Kiba and Shino in another.

There was more space for everyone but they still ended up sleeping together.

"Why don't they sleep together?" She asked Narumi after she closed the door to the room. She shrugged with a smile.

"They're just used to it, I guess."

Kurenai raised a brow in confusion but Narumi didn't notice, her eyes on the table. Kakashi was nursing a cup of warm tea.

"I guess you finally learnt how to make tea." Narumi teased him.

"Hm." He agreed, to both their surprise. "All thanks to you, sensei." Narumi laughed.

Suddenly, Kurenai felt very distinctly understood what it felt like third wheeling.

"Will you be staying for tea, Kurenai-san?" Narumi asked, looking at her warmly. Kurenai very expressively did not glance at Kakashi, shaking her head.

"I should be going already. Thank you for your guidance, Narumi-sensei." She teased the other woman. Narumi scratched her cheek a little shyly, sensing the genuine gratefulness under the teasing.

"You didn't have to worry so much. You were already doing right by them." They shared a moment, smiling warmly at each other.

Kakashi put his cup down a little louder than necessary, interrupting it.

Kurenai suppressed a smile.

"Have a pleasant night, Kakashi-san, Narumi-san." She nodded at them both, before wearing her shoes back and leaving.

The smile she had been suppressing the whole time widened to a grin. Those two were so going to get together.

Now she needed to decide if she should tell anyone or not.

* * *

Narumi sipped the tea Kakashi had made. It was still a little too strong, but still much better than his first attempt.

"You really have gotten better at this," she murmured under her breath. Her eyes set on the tea in front of her. Kakashi walked from the kitchen to her.

"Are you done with that?" he asked her, amusement in his voice. She hadn't been able to handle much more than a sip of his earlier attempts at tea.

"Hm. No?" she smirked at him. "I'm just savoring your only successful attempt at tea." Then a little dramatically, she raised the cup, "A toast! To the only decent tea made by Hatake Kakashi!" Kakashi grabbed the cup from her hand.

"I think you don't want any more of this." She stood up, reaching for the cup, laughing.

"I'm sorry, I said I'm sorry, damn it, Kaka-"

It cut off, when she realized she was leaning her back against Kakashi's chest, her arm placed over his, to reach for the tea. They were...too close. Her heart stuttered.

She coughed, trying to dismiss her embarrassment. She casually pulled away and placed a hand on her hip.

"I swear to god, Kakashi. That tea was actually decent, if you throw it away and I have to make more..." She narrowed her eyes. Kakashi grinned before handing it back to her.

"See? All you had to do was ask." He eye smiled.

She glared at him, before pulling the cup towards her. She looked at it, her eye twitching.

It was empty.

"Damn it, you scarecrow!" She threw the cup at the fleeing jonin.

He caught it, leaving it on the windowsill before escaping.

"This man, I swear to God..."

She rolled her eyes at his antics, going to her unbroken cup, a smile on her lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I probably made this so cliche! But I am of the firm belief that Narumi has become Kakashi's teacher of social norms. Plus quite a bit of time has passed too!  
> Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this!


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